The Key
by AK-tutti
Summary: Alex and Justin discovers a strange, young girl in the sub-station and suspects that she might be magical. It introduces them to a whole new world of magic which may be more than they bargained for. And who/what is The Key? And to what?
1. Chapter 1

_Hey there :) . So this is kind of a spin-off from my other Wizards fic 'Free', but not so much that you have to read that first . I'm just gonna brief you then . In Free, Alex is sick of being the screw up with magic, and she is sick of the way Justin treats her, kinda like she's stupid and can't handle the wizard competition . So she takes herself out of the competition with a spell that strips her powers . So in the beginning of this fic she won't have her powers . Her family found out she removed her powers, so that's all water under the bridge, but she's really important to this story and so are the powers that she no longer has … So yeah … There's also gonna be a little Charmed over this . That's all I'm gonna say . Oh yeah, and forget what you know 'cos there's gonna be a new magical universe in this . And Juliet will also be in this . The whole Mason/Juliet battle won't have happened, and Mason is not in it . Or he might be . I haven't decided ._

_**Disclaimer; **I don't own Wizards of Waverly Place, in case you were wondering . Neither do I own Charmed, but I do own the character of Priscilla ._

**The Key**

**Chapter 1.**

It was a day like any other at the Waverly Sub Station. Business was slow as usual, but it was enough for the Sub Station to get by. A couple sat at a table by the door, a few people sat closer to the counter, and a girl sat at a table in the middle. A girl with golden middle blonde locks down to her chest - thick and wavy, brown eyes and freckles. She was 5'7" and really thin. She did not look like a sub station kind of girl, in fact she hadn't even ordered anything!

Jerry and Theresa were at some convention, and that meant that Justin and Alex were covering the business with assistance from Harper. A couple of weeks ago they couldn't have gotten them to do it. Justin had been so disappointed in Alex's decision to strip her powers, but recently they had learned to get along again and had gotten weirdly close. Not close-close, but closer than they had ever been before.

They had been talking about closing up early and catching a movie together, but they couldn't agree on one to watch. Justin couldn't get the conversation started with Alex 'cos she was so hung up with the girl in the middle. She was annoyed with the fact that the girl just sat there and didn't order, and she was tempted to go over there and give her a piece of her mind.

The girl sat and looked like she was searching for something, like she didn't exactly know where she was or what she was doing there. It looked like she wondered how she had gotten there, but Alex felt like that if she hadn't meant to go in there then she should just get lost, but no... She kept sitting there.

Alex let out a loud groan. "Ugh, she just keeps sitting there without ordering." She complained and looked at Justin and looked like he would agree.

"Yeah, I don't think that's a movie." He said and folded his arms, looking at her with his 'I don't get you' look. It was a look that he had used many times before. "Just stop focussing on her. She's not doing you any harm. She is just sitting there, so now just tell me which movie you'd like to see."

"But Justin, that's my point exactly: she's just sitting there." She exclaimed, completely ignoring Justin's request. She threw down her apron and was about to march over there, but Harper stopped her. "Harper, let go. I'm gonna tell her what I think about space fillers."

Harper shook her head 'cos it really wasn't a good idea. "Then who is gonna tell your dad that you scared away yet another customer?" She questioned her best friend, and then she raised a brow at her 'cos she knew she was right.

Alex sighed and sat back down on one of the stools at the counter. She hated not being right, and her own little world it was rare that she wasn't. She crossed her arms and kept looking dissatisfied at the girl in the middle. She was allowed to do that. That surely wouldn't scare away anymore customers.

Just then the doors to the sandwich bar were opened and Juliet stepped in, looking radiant as ever in Justin's eyes. A weird expression immediately appeared on her face, and she spun around like she was searching for something, but she didn't find it so she was still wearing a questionable frown when she got to the counter.

She gave Justin a quick peck on the lips, and then she turned to Alex and looked at her with the same frown as before, and it was like her eyes bore into Alex and tried to figure something out. She stepped closer to Alex and the expression on her face got more intense. She bent a little forward and dug her nose into Alex's shoulder and took a big sniff.

Alex jumped up from her chair and pushed Juliet away. "What the hell are you doing?" She exclaimed and stared at Juliet with wide angry eyes, and Juliet wore a confused expression on her face.

"I don't get it?" She said and sounded just as confused as she looked, and then she searched to Justin for answers. "When I stepped in here I swear I smelled a wizard. I know you are a wizard, but it wasn't you. It was a new smell, and I don't know who it comes from. For a minute there I thought Alex might have gotten her powers back, but no. It's not entirely a wizard smell, but I don't know what else it could be."

Justin looked intrigued and became eager to figure this out. "It might be one of the customers." He outed his thought, and then he looked at his girlfriend with a questionmark on his face and asked; "Do you think you can sniff out the person from here?"

Juliet nodded. She might be able to do that. She squinted her eyes together and focussed all her energy and vampire powers on sniffing out the new wizards. The smell didn't come from the couple in the corner by the door, so she shook her head, rolled her eyes and focused on the person close to the counter. Nope. Same procedure as before: head shaking, eyes rolling and then she focussed her attention and sense of smell on the girl in the middle.

She got eager, made a funny little jump and tucked on Justin's shirt, and then she pointed discretely at the girl in the middle without anyone else noticing it, except Alex and Harper. "It's her. The girl in the middle. The smell comes from her." She whispered and smiled, and then she thought to herself: mission accomplished.

"Should we go talk to her?" Justin wondered out loud, excited like his girlfriend. It was always nice to find another wizard, they were getting extinct after all.

"Maybe just one of us." She said, and then she elected herself because she had after all been the one to sniff her out. She walked over to the middle table and sat down in front of the girl, and she looked at her seriously and whispered: "I know what you are."

The girl frowned and looked like she had no idea what on earth Juliet was talking about. She had heard 'I know who you are', but never 'what'. It sounded like she wasn't even human. She was human, a special one at that. Mortal: no. Human: yes.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" The girl brushed off Juliet's blunt ascertainment of facts, mainly because she was insulted by the what. "Now, will you please leave me alone? I'm waiting for someone."

Juliet looked back at Justin who nodded and urged for her to go on, so she turned her head back to the girl, swallowed a lump and continued; "I think you do. You don't fool me." She said and tried to act confident about it, and then she leaned in and whispered; "You reak of it."

The girl raised her brows and looked very insulted. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "First I'm a what, and now you say I smell. What exactly is it that you think I am and smell off?" She questioned, mostly to get Juliet off her case and get on with her waiting.

"Wizard." Juliet whispered again because secrecy was very important when it revolved magic. The girl let out a contemptuous laugh and shook her head. "You can't deny it. I can smell it on you."

The girl unfolded her arms and leaned in towards Juliet, and then she spoke with muffled voice; "I think you need to get your head examined. I am not a wizard, and I do not smell of anything except for my perfume." She leaned back in her chair again and continued to speak, but this time in regular conversating tone of voice; "Could you leave now? I don't care for your presence."

Juliet pushed out her chair and plastered a defeated look upon her face, and then she dragged her feet back to Justin, Alex and Harper with her head down low. Justin put his arm around his girlfriend to comfort her for her defeat. It wasn't Juliet's fault that this girl seemed rude.

Harper, having always felt uncomfortable with magic, excused herself from the mess, and then she went over to the staircase and walked all the way upstairs. If the girl wouldn't admit to being a wizard or worse; if she wasn't a wizard then what was she? It made Harper scared because if monsters and beasts existed... then who really knew what this girl could be?

Alex suddenly got an idea and a brilliant one at that if she did say so herself, but for the plan to succeed Justin had to go along with it, as she herself was without magic after she cast them away with that spell of hers. At times like these where magic was needed she would sometimes regret her decision a little, but it was for the best in the long run. It wasn't like she would have won the wizard competition anyways. It would probably be Justin, and he would probably give up his powers to be with Juliet then. If the wizard world frowned upon wizards marrying mortals, surely they wouldn't be thrilled about them marrying vampires either, and that would ultimately make Max the family wizard. What had the world come to?

She shook her head and let all of her thoughts revolving the wizard competition slide, and then she turned to Justin to let him in on her plan. "What if we use the truth spell on her? The one professor Crumbs taught us then she'd be forced to tell us the truth."

After she had pitched the idea she pictured herself actually performing the spell, and it made her regret giving up her powers once again. She shook it off again and focussed her attention on Justin who seemed to be contemplating her idea. Most of the time he would never go for an Alex idea, but every once in a while she struck gold, and then he would be all onboard.

"Hmm... We'll call that plan B, but first let me try to get her talking." Justin said and halfway agreed to Alex's plan, and then he let go of Juliet and walked out to the girl at the middle table and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Justin. Justin Russo. And you are?"

The girl looked up at Justin and forced a smile, wondering why all these different people came up to her to talk. She didn't have time for that at all. She had more pressing matters, and if things didn't work out like she thought they would soon, then she would have to get going and try something else.

"I'm Priscilla. Halliwell. Priscilla Halliwell." She introduced herself nonetheless, but didn't shake the hand that Justin had extended to her. Priscilla Halliwell did not roll that way. She didn't do handshakes among other things.

Normally Justin would have on of his trips if someone did not have proper manners and shook his hand, but this time he let it slide and sat down in front of Priscilla. Manners took the backseat that afternoon, as getting her talking and admitting she was in fact wizard was more important.

"My girlfriend was over here before and not to be blunt, but her nose never fails and we know that you're a wizard." Justin explained and watched Priscilla intensely, trying to figure her out. He hoped that by staring her down she would finally crack and admit to being a wizard. Juliet just couldn't be wrong.

Priscilla placed elbow on the table and rested her head in her hand, and then she offered Justin a smile – a sarcastic one at that. "Wow, what gave it away?" She asked him and the sarcasm in her voice was heavy, and Justin wasn't late to pick on that. "Is it my purple dress? My black belt and purse? Is it my hair? Or the fact that I'm sitting in a sandwich bar in the middle of the afternoon run by crazy people?" Sarcasm was apparently what this Priscilla did best or so it seemed. She leaned back in her chair and sat regularly again. "I thought I did so well covering it up this morning, but my damn I didn't."

"So that's a no?" Justin asked in such a lame way that only he could, and she sent him the same sarcastic smile as before and nodded, and then he agreed with himself that it was time to send in the big guns because he had already given up. He groaned out load; "Ugh!"

He almost sprung out of his chair and rushed back to Juliet and Alex at the counter, and then exclaimed in a whisper; "She's impossible to crack!" He turned to Alex and looked at her pleadingly, and then he made his request; "Alex, will you please have a go at her? And if that doesn't work we are going to go with your idea and do the truth spell."

Alex nodded and smiled mischieviously because this girl was about to meet her upper man. She left the counter and walked over to the table and sat down in front of the girl, like she knew her and that chair was meant for her. She was Alex Russo, and she didn't care. If that girl thought she was tough then Alex was tougher.

"I'm Alex Russo. I'm so sorry for my brother and his girlfriend. I really do try to keep them away from people." She said and gave herself a little unnoticable smile, as she could see her plan of subtle manipulation worked. Manipulation was what Alex did best, and she knew what kind of people would buy it, and this girl seemed like one of those. She might have sarcasm, but so did Alex and manipulation too.

"I'm Priscilla Halliwell, and if your brother sent you then the answer is no. I'm not a wizard." The annoyance in Priscilla's voice was clear, and she rolled her eyes and looked completely repulsed by the idea of being a wizard, and then Alex knew that they were dealing with something else, but what?

Alex contemplated her next move. It was gonna take some risk to get Priscilla to talk, and it those risks weren't gonna be appreciated by her brother, but they had to be done if they wanted to get something out of this. She smiled to herself as she decided what to do.

She leaned forward to be close and to talk intimately to Priscilla so no-one else would hear them. The whole entire world didn't need to know. Alex's tactic was something for something. She had to give this Priscilla something to get something back.

"I know you're not a wizard, but the fact is that my brother is a wizard and I used to be, and his girlfriend is a vampire." Alex explained like it was no big deal, and Priscilla looked horrified at the mention of vampires. Horrified like she knew they existed. Alex could sense that she was about ready to bite so she continued; "I stripped my powers a while back, but vampires have a sense of smell where they can sense if you're a wizard, and the smell you have is very similar to the one I used to have. That's why they think you're a wizard, but if you tell me what you are then we can clear this whole thing right out."

Priscilla leaned forward and rubbed her face with her hands, really thinking long and hard about this. She pressed her hands up against her temples and got deeper into her thought, and after a little while she removed hands from head and sat regularly again. She nodded like she had decided something, and then she placed elbows on the table folded her hands.

Alex couldn't believe how long this Priscilla character was about this. Maybe she had been wrong in judging her character? Maybe she wasn't a something for something kind of girl. Alex looked at the clock hanging next to the staircase and saw it was nearly 4 O'clock. Her and Justin had agreed to close up at 4 and that was in 5 minutes.

She looked back at Priscilla and saw that she hands folded, and she barely got to wonder why she was sitting like that. Priscilla flicked her hands open, and all of the sudden it was 4 O'clock and everybody at the sub station were either sitting or standing like they were frozen.

Her eyes grew wide and she stared frighteningly at Priscilla. She had never experienced this before. Well, she had, but back then she had been the one causing it, jumping around on one leg to keep the time frozen. This wasn't her, though, and the reason she looked at Priscilla with terrified eyes was because she was the only other person unfrozen.

"I hate you guys coming up to me, saying I know what you are." Priscilla spoke so quietly that Alex could barely hear her, but she immediately forgot about terrified because she could sense that this was going somewhere. "I'm nothing these days. I used to something and I knew it, too. I was so full of myself because I felt so powerful, but recently I discovered that I'm really nothing, and you three people have just confirmed that I'm nothing." Priscilla's voice teared up, but she continued nonetheless. "I don't even know what I'm doing here. I think I might be waiting for someone, but I don't know."

"How can you not know if you're waiting for someone or not?" Alex interrupted and stared at her with disbelief. That was beyond her understandance, but then again she wasn't so good with all that sensitive stuff. She was getting better though. Priscilla shot her a look as if to ask why on earth she was interrupting? "Sorry."

"I don't even know why I'm telling this to a former wizard. The book clearly states that wizards are tricksters, and that they are not necessarily good or evil. That's why you're getting extinct, you know, the tricksters part. It creates enemies." Priscilla noticed she got off track with the last remark, and she knew she didn't have much time to get this out of the system so she was quickly back on track. "Can't say I care for vampires either, but that's not the point. I just don't know how I got here. I scried and nothing, and then I cast a spell, but none of it makes any sense. And usually when I say my name people in the magical world knows me, but not you or your family and that proves my point. I'm nothing."

"To be fairly honest I never really paid much attention in my magic lessons so that's probably why." Alex chipped in to cheer Priscilla up. She had been in her shoes, feeling like she was nothing and knew that it was a good feeling, and nobody should feel like that. She even surprised herself because she normally didn't do that, but Priscilla smiled and she felt satisfied.

"Then let me introduce myself; I'm Priscilla Halliwell, a Charmed One. Or what's left of us at least." Priscilla introduced herself properly and tried to smile, but failed. She nervously glanced at the clock and saw that if was a couple of minutes past 4. It had been quite a long freeze, but it surely wouldn't last much longer so she had to speed things along. "Can we take this somewhere else. I don't feel all that comfortable discussing this out in the open, especially not with the freeze wearing off soon."

"This was your doing?" Alex exclaimed, not even knowing why it came out like she was even surprised. Who else could it be when it wasn't herself. Priscilla nodded and her old self would have been proud of her doing, but this version of her was just sad. "Okay, well if you know how to undo this then me and my brother can close up, and then we'll go into our layer and talk this over. It's safe there."

Just by the wave of a hand everything unfroze.

Alex pretended like the whole thing wasn't tripping her out, and then she pushed out the chair and walked back to Justin and Juliet, thinking that they were amateurs because they weren't able to get her to talk. It had been pretty easy for her to get this Priscilla character to talk.

Justin was eager to know what Priscilla had said to Alex, and he thought to himself that it was weird how fast Alex had given up on getting her to talk. He had been frozen and didn't know that Alex had actually gotten something out of her.

"What happened?" Justin questioned, looking as eager as if it had something to do with science or monster hunting. He certainly wasn't expecting the answer he was about to get. He was quite sure that Alex had met her upper man.

"We might have a chance of actually getting something out of her. I already know who she is, but we need to close down and get her into our layer or we won't get more out of her." Alex explained and watched Justin's face turn into a confused expression. She quite liked that look on her otherwise know-it-all brother. He had no idea he had been frozen along with Juliet and the rest of the customers, so in his mind Alex hadn't had enough time to get something out of her. "I'll get the customers out of here 'cos let's face it: I'm more effective than you. You can lead Priscilla into the layer, and maybe you and Juliet could try not to offend her again?"

Justin did a funny little jump and threw his arms down. He hated when Alex was right. He grabbed Juliet's hand and walked over to Priscilla to get her with them into the layer, and Alex watched the whole thing to make sure that this 'opportunity' didn't slip out of their hands. This could turn into something exciting.

Alex saw Priscilla nod and stand up from her chair and follow Justin and Juliet into the kitchen, and then they stepped into their refridgerator which turned into their layer at the wave of a wand. Now she knew she could get people out of there with a calm mind, knowing Justin and Juliet hadn't scared Priscilla off.

"Okay, people. We are closing down now." Alex yelled and clapped hands together to get all three customers attention. They looked at her with slightly outraged expression on their faces. They had barely dug into their sandwiches or their sodas. Not her problem. "And if you haven't finished your food, well that's just too damn bad. We don't give money back. Buh-bye."

She walked over to the door and opened it and waved her arm at the open door, signaling for them to get out. All three of the customers got up and grumpily walked out of the sandwichbar, each of the mumbling something about bad service. Alex didn't care. She closed the door, locked it and clapped her hands together for a job well done.

**The Key**

Justin and Juliet led Priscilla into the layer, and she looked around with a very judgemental look upon her face. She wasn't a huge fan of wizards so everything was being judged. Everything from the brown couches, to the glassball, to the weird window/door at one end and all the other little weird things in the room.

Juliet tried to smile at her, but she just stared at her with narrowed eyes and a suspicious look on her face. She wasn't one for vampires either. Even if Juliet wasn't a vampire she wouldn't have smiled back. She had no reason to smile, but she kind of scared Juliet because she looked so angry.

And Justin wasn't making things better. He was staring at Priscilla like she was some kind of new species, and he didn't even know what she was yet. For all he knew she was still a wizard. A wizard with trust issues. It fascinated him that she was so different from them.

Priscilla was tempted to freeze them, but how could she know that one of them wasn't the reason she was there in the first place? She had tried scrying, but it hadn't worked. She had then tried a spell to find the key and she wound up there. So who was to say that the nerdy looking guy with wide and eager eyes wasn't the one? And who was to say the mischievious, manipulating, devious girl who had gotten her to talk wasn't the one either? One thing she knew for sure, though, was that the vampire girl definitely wasn't it.

Priscilla sent another judgemental look Juliet's way, mixed in with some disgust. She definitely wasn't the key. Why would something so evil be the key? She was definite it wasn't. Vampires were evil and couldn't be trusted at all, at least that's what she had gathered from what she'd heard in the past. They had been banished from the Underworld after all, and that had to take some work.

She sat down on the only chair in the layer. She wouldn't risk the wizard or the vampire sitting down next to her, not knowing what their agenda with her was. She had been told in the past that wizards were tricksters, you never knew if they were good or evil, and they would betray you just for the power. That's why they were getting extinct (or so she'd been told) because they made so many enimies.

Justin sat down on the couch closest to the chair, the one in front of the shelf with all sorts of thing they sometimes used for their wizards lessons, and then he kept staring at her the same way as before, like she was this new species or a new toy or something. He had these wide eyes, eager to know more about this new 'species'.

She hoped this Alex girl would be there soon because she felt very uncomfortable in wizard boy and vampire girl's presence. She scooted a little to the side in the chair and made herself small, tightening her arms to her body and her entire body was stiff with her being so uncomfortable.

It was like Justin had no sense of the situation whatsoever. He just smiled and leaned closer to Priscilla. "Alex says you're talking now." He said, thinking it would make her tell him something important, too, but she just stared at Juliet with disgust.

"I'm not saying anything with a vampire present." She closed her hands into two fists and really tightening them, her nails digging into her hands. She really had to control herself to not use her powers, and if she succeeded this would be a first. "Who's to say who she'll report back to. Vampires are themselves nearest so if it does them good they'll report to the source himself, and he is the one who banished them in the first place. They hate each others guts. So either she goes or I'm not talking."

Justin's expression finally changed into something else. Now he looked really angry because he loved Juliet, and nobody talked to her like that or looked at her like that. Juliet wasn't evil and hadn't seen a shadow of evil so she didn't deserve to be looked at like that, and she certainly didn't deserve to be talked to like that either.

"First of all, I don't know who you think you are, but my girlfriend is as good as the day is long, and she's not reporting back to a source of any kind. She doesn't even know who that is." He led off by saying, now standing up so he could really give this rude girl a piece of his mind. He continued; "Secondly, she doesn't deserve to be talked about like that, especially not when you've told Alex things and she's worse than Juliet in any way."

Priscilla clinched her hands tighter. She was on verge of using her powers now, and she hadn't fully learned to control all of them yet, and if she hurt an innocent... She would lose her powers and who knows what else would happen? She opened her hand and started flicking all of her fingers back and forth, tempted to use her powers more so than before.

There was only one thing that could keep her from using her powers now, and she could risk it so she got up from the chair, turned her back to Justin and Juliet and began walking towards the layer's exit. If she removed herself from the scene that triggered the temptation, surely the urge would go away.

Just as she reached the door and was about to exit Alex entered, and she didn't have to even look twice at the scenario before she knew what was going on. She grabbed a hold on Priscilla and led her back into the room and made her sit down on the very same chair as before. Then she walked over to Justin and locked her eyes with his.

"You need to tell Juliet to leave." Alex said in such a low voice that only Justin could hear her, and it sounded more like a demand than a request. Justin looked like he was about to object again, but Alex cut him off before he could even do so. "No, listen to me. My instinct tells me that girl has signifigance to our future and us to hers, and it is very important for us to have her talking, and she won't if Juliet is here. She's already wizard racist as much as vampire one, do you wanna make it all worse by having Juliet stay?"

Justin sighed and sounded defeated, but how was he supposed to ask Juliet to leave? He would have to because it really did sound important to Alex, and he had never heard her sound so sure of something before – all of the this even had her using words like instinct so it was very important.

He walked over to Juliet and looked lovingly into her eyes, almost like he wanted to apologize on beforehand. "Juliet, you have to leave. I'm sorry." His eyes became even more apologetic, like he thought he was breaking her heart somehow by asking her to leave.

"Don't be, Justin. This is important, and I know it isn't a choice between me or her." She spoke softly and gently ran her fingers through his hair as a sign of affection. She leaned her forehead against his and carried on, almost whispering; "I know what I'm about and what I stand for, and I know that I'm not evil and wouldn't betray what would have been said in this room, and I don't want you to feel like this moment was a choice between this and me. I know me staying wouldn't be helping this situation and that's okay. I will see you later, and I want you to know that you telling me to leave doesn't change that fact that I love you, okay?"

Justin nodded and almost teared up at the revelation of how beautiful a person his girlfriend really was. "I love you too." He whispered and kissed her forehead. He gave her a tender hug and let her go, and as soon as she had gone out of the layer he turned towards Priscilla and Alex with a very stern look on his face. "This better be good."

Alex sat down on the couch on the exact same spot where Justin had been seated before, and Justin sat down next to her, clearly not looking happy with the situation. It was clear to both his sister and the new girl that he wasn't all that happy with the situation.

"I get how you feel." Priscilla said all of the sudden and took Justin by surprise. He wasn't expecting that at all and neither was Alex. "The whole forbidden love thing, but we do it anyways, don't we?"

Justin opened his mouth and looked completely stunned by what she had just said, and he completely forgot about disliking her when she said that. It almost changed everything because it sounded like she really knew what she was talking about, like she herself had experienced forbidden love. He nodded his head and by that agreeing with her.

She locked his eyes with his, only adressing him because Alex already knew some of the things she was about to say; "I'm a witch. No wands. I have actual powers and you have both experienced one of them. I froze everything in the sandwich bar and unfroze Alex to talk to her." She explained and watched as Justin's face grew more intense, indicating that he was really paying attention to the new information he was given. "I'm a Charmed One."

"Oh, my GOD!" Justin exclaimed because unlike Alex he did pay attention during the magic lessons, and he knew very well who the Charmed Ones were. He was very excited about the situation now, he had completely forgotten about the Juliet incident before. "I never thought I'd actually meet a Charmed One. Where are the rest of the Power of Three?"

Priscilla looked down and clearly got very upset, and Justin knew he had stepped in something now, but how was he supposed to know what was going on with everything. They had only just now begun talking.

"That's actually why I'm here." She explained and looked back up at Justin. She tried to smile, but failed. It looked half-hearted and sad. "They were kidnapped by the Source. I barely got away and now I don't know how to get to them. He just came and invaded our house, taking them. He wants us dead because we as the Charmed Ones are the only ones with the powers to vanguish him." Alex for the first time looked very intrigued as more and more information came up to the surface, and Priscilla kept going even though it was painful. "I tried scrying for them using their most priced possesion, a sister, but I got nothing and I knew right away he had them in the Underworld. I tried a blood to blood spell, but I still got nothing. I knew then that he probably had them in a cage where magic can't get out of, such a cage is named in the book. That's how I know. So I cast a spell to help me find the key to getting them back, and then I ended up here."

"What's the book?" Alex asked, but Justin immediately interrupted, showing himself off from his annoying know-it-all side in Alex's opinion.

"The Book of Shadows. Don't be so stupid, Alex, everybody know that the Charmed Ones' book is called The Book of Shadows." He said and looked at Priscilla, almost like he expected some sort of reward og acknowledgement for knowing that. "It's the book that every evil creature wants to get their hands up because it's where the Charmed Ones get their powers from, but evil can't touch it because it's protected by a great source of good. They want it because the Charmed Ones are the most powerful good witches in the universe and almost the most powerful magical creatures overall as well."

"Yeah, that basically sums it up." Priscilla agreed and acknowledged Justin's knowledge on the subject, not that any of that information had any signifigance anymore. "But we're nothing anymore. I'm nothing without them, and they are nothing without me. Sure I'm more powerful than all other witches and they're the same, but we're nothing without each other. The power lies in the three of us. I need to get them back."

Alex was starting to grasp the seriousness of the situation, and she hadn't in her wildest imagination thought that the girl at the middle table would be all this and have all of these serious problems. She didn't get half of it, but hopefully she would get smarter along the way in helping her. She guessed that was what they were doing, and it was probably what Justin would want them to do even if she didn't have any powers.

"When you guys say evil?" She questioned and looked at both Priscilla and her brother, making it clearly that she didn't get it. For once in her life she was kind of scared. Evil was a big word.

"Demons, warlocks, darklighters etc." Priscilla said nonchalantly like it wasn't scary at all, and it frightened Alex a little bit more. Priscilla made it sound like it was just every day stuff, but for her it was.

"And when you say the Source?" Alex asked, still one big question mark. They needed to understand more before they could go any further. "What kind of source are we talking about?"

Priscilla grew more serious, and then Justin and Alex knew that it was serious stuff – more serious than those demons, warlocks and what were those other things? It got scarrier by the second.

"The Source of all evil." Priscilla explained, and you could see the hate in her eyes as she told them about him, but how else was she supposed to look when he took her sisters? And without her he could easily kill them, and without them he could easily kill her. They only stood a chance against him the three of them together. Sure, they could wound him and put up a great fight, but by seperating them they couldn't vanguish him and he could easilier kill them. "He is like the boss of demons and stuff – therefore the Source of all evil."

"But do you know what the key to getting them back is, and aren't you scared of being killed?" Justin wanted to know as he was beginning to fear for Priscilla's life. It only got worse when more and more information got on the table. They had to help her whatever it took.

"I'm not scared of getting killed. I have an upper hand on the Source and that's something he can't break through." Priscilla said all secretively or so they thought she was, but she wasn't trying to be. She just hadn't been able to completely judge their character yet, and she didn't wanna reveal all of her powers to them then just to have them betray her. She a feeling they were a little bit trustworthy, and that was why she was still talking. "As for the key I thought that it might have been the Grimoir – which is like the evil Book of Shadows – but seeing as I'm here now I know it isn't. I would have been in the Underworld then."

Alex and Justin just sat there and soaked up the information. It was like a whole new world for them. Sure, Justin had heard about the Charmed Ones and all that, but he had know idea about a lot of it. He loved hearing about it in a weird way, though, seeing as he really liked learning knew stuff. Other than that he didn't find it particularly thrilling because it was serious and scary stuff.

"You said you tried scrying for the key. What does that mean?" Justin asked this question as well, eager to know everything that he didn't know already, and scrying was a new phenomenon to him.

"It means that you use and enchanted crystal to scry for something." Priscilla revealed, and then an idea struck her. Alex had closed down the sandwich bar, and Justin had sent his vampire girlfriend home. This was her chance. "I just thought of something. You or Alex might be the key, and since we are the only ones here I could try scrying for the key so I can know for sure. All I need is a map of you city."

Justin got up from his seat and walked out of the layer to get a map and with that silently agreeing with Priscilla, and while he did that Priscilla dug into the pocket of her dress and got out a purple crystal. Normally she wore it around her neck, but then demons and other evil creatures would know immidiately that she was a witch when they met her out and about. Normally they didn't need a crystal to know, but she wasn't about to make it easier for them.

The door to the layer opened and Justin reentered, and then he put down the map he'd found on the table. Priscilla stood up and began swinging the crystal, which was still enchanted from an earlier search, over the map in seach for the key. It didn't take long before the crystal dropped on Waverly Place.

Priscilla looked up at Justin and Alex and smiled for the first time. Finally she saw a real chance of getting her sisters back. "It's one of you." She sat down in the chair again and watched as Justin folded the map and put it to the side. "The question is who? And can I trust you?"

Alex and Justin nodded as if to say yes, letting her know that she could trust them, but she wasn't just gonna take their nods for it. She folded her hands again with only her index fingers stretched out with one under and over the other, having them being only inches apart. There was a little light and a enormous green book with a triquatra on the cover appeared in her hands – the Book of Shadows. She placed it on the table for the ultimate test.

She watched them suspiciously, trying to figure out if they really were trustworthy. She couldn't decide, but to be safe she was gonna let the book be the judge. "To be sure I want you to touch the book. If it accepts you, you'll be able to touch it. If not it'll zap you."

Alex stretched out her hand to touch the book, and Justin did the same, swallowing a huge lump in his throat only being inches from touching the book.

**The Key**

_And that wraps up the first chapter. I really hope you like it. I have had this idea spinning in my head for a very long time, but I took some time off from ff with a severe depression being the main reason, but I'm back now and I think that I'm better than ever. So I hope that you'll review and tell me what you think, and you could maybe say what you'd like to happen. Nothing is written in stone, but I do have some good ideas of what I want to happen. I hope you liked how I portrayed everybody. And how do you like Priscilla? And what do you think of Alex maybe getting her powers back. I haven't decided yet. I'm back and forth, but Priscilla and the others have the powers to give her her powers back, even seperately. So just say the words. Until next time..._

_**AK-tutti**_


	2. Chapter 2

_Hey :) . I would like to thank those who read the last chapters and the one who reviewed :) . I have been working hard on this chapter, but I've had a lot in the works so this hasn't been my main focus. Hopefully it will be acceptable :). Here it is, and I hope you enjoy :)_

_**Disclaimer; **I don't own WoWP or Charmed for that matter, but I do own a few original characters ;b ._

**The Key**

**Chapter 1.**

Why was she such a failure? She looked around at her surroundings. She was in a dark cave only lit up by some scary looking pillars with fire, and the walls were built up by uneven brown and redish rocks. She didn't know exactly where she was, but she had spotted her way out.

There between two big pillars was an opening out. Sure, it was big, scary and black and she didn't know what would be on the other end, but it was the only way out.

10 feet away from the opening was a bookstand made up of stones and rocks, and on top of the stand a book and that same book was probably left there to mock her. That would be very likely when you considered who was 'King' of the rocks.

She leaned up against the bars of the cage she was captivated in and slid down, holding up her entire body weight by the lower point of her legs. She wasn't in shape and it hurt, but she deserved the pain.

She closed her eyes and pressed them so tight together that tears began to form in her eyes, and then she tried to wish the whole thing away. She opened her eyes only to realize that it wasn't a cruel dream, it was a horrible reality.

"I'm so sorry." She spoke, her voice so fragile and filled with sadness that it broke. At the other end of the cage sat a girl with her arms around her legs, looking down at her knees in defeat. She looked up and her green eyes were filled with the pain of not being able to do anything.

"Don't! Just don't." The girl almost whispered and looked away, not wanting her little sister to see her tears and the failure in her eyes. She was the oldest, and she couldn't do anything. She knew how her little sister felt about herself, and she didn't want her to bring the fault of this upon herself. "This isn't your fault, Penelope. This would have happened eventually. I just wish it would have happened at a time where we would have been more familiar with our powers, and we would have had the power to escape."

Penelope stood up and walked to the front of cage and wrapped her hands around the bars. She knew exactly how this happened. "It wouldn't have mattered. I would still be just as weak, I would still be holding you guys down. Now we're left to rot in this place." Her eyes landed on the book, wishing there was a way to get to their own.

"We're not left to rot here. We might not be able to get out ourselves, but Priscilla is on her way and..." It was supposed to be this whole speech, bringing a little hope to the cage, but she was cut off by her sister.

"Please, Patricia. Priscilla hates me, and she'd be happy to see me end my days here." Penelope let go of the bars and walked over to Patricia, sitting down next to her. "Sure, she'll come for you. You she loves, but if she could she'd leave me here."

Patricia's green eyes locked with Penelope's blue ones, and she shook her head in disbelief. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Penelope had always been insecure, feeling like the left out sister – the one who wasn't needed and was just a spare. Her and Priscilla had had an ongoing feud for years, but deep down where it really counted Patricia truly believed that Penelope and Priscilla really did love each other, and surely Priscilla wouldn't leave her own sister hanging because of past troubles.

Those insecurities of Penelope's had only increased after the day Priscilla wandered up into their attic, after being told not to go anywhere near it and stumbled upon the Book of Shadows, and they became the Charmed Ones – powerful witches. She felt like the weak sister, the one who was just coasting along because they needed a third one. She didn't amount to anything. Patricia was the oldest and the protector – kind of a mothery type. Powerful, but cautious. She didn't rush into battles just like that, but she wasn't afraid to go for it either. She never believed you were surrounded, unless they were all around you. There was always something you could do.

Penelope had always been the smart one when it came to books and generel knowledge and such, but when it came to life Patricia was slightly wiser. Penelope had made stupid choices in the past just like Priscilla, and therefore they had an ongoing feud. Priscilla held grudges, but Penelope often admitted defeat due to her feeling like the weak one – the one who doesn't matter. She for instance believed it was her fault that she and Patricia had been captured, the reason being her weakness and her great ability to fail. If only she could see how strong, smart and needed she was.

Priscilla was the bold and fearless one, rushing into dangers without thinking once about it. She thought she was so strong and unbeatable just because she had the power to freeze among other things. On paper and in the field she was the most powerful, but she was reckless and that brought it all down. She could easily get herself killed, rushing into danger like she so often did. She was mischievious, sarcastic and all that, but as much as she was all of the mentioned things, she was still fragile and had a great fear of getting hurt. She was all those things, and sure she 'hated' her sister for things in the past, but she wasn't one to leave her own sister hanging.

When Patricia got angry her sisters swore that they could see lightening in her eyes, and that was what Penelope could see now. "Shut up, Pen. Just shut the hell up." Patricia said and focussed all her energy on containing her voice in a normal speaking level. You didn't want to add fuel to a fire, and if the Source heard them yelling at each other that's what it would be. "I'm so sick of hearing you say things like that. 'I'm so weak, you don't need me', 'I'm worthless, you'd be better off without me', 'Priscilla hates me, she'll leave me here'. If you think that then maybe she should leave you." The words left her mouth before she could even stop them. Patricia hated herself for them. Ordinarily she wouldn't blow up at her sister like that. Damn it.

Patricia watched the tears form in her sister's eyes. "I'm so sorry, Pen. I didn't mean that." She put a comforting arm around her littlesis and tilted her head to rest it on her shoulder. "It's just in my eyes you have nothing to back your insecurities up with. In my eyes you're not weak, you're just as strong as the rest of us. We do need you. You're not worthless, you're the total opposite. I would die without you. You and Priscilla might have had your past differences, but trust that she'll follow through in saving us. I wish you could see yourself with my eyes." Patricia took her sister's hand and squeezed it gently and held on to it as she continued; "I love you, you know that?"

She could feel Penelope nod even though they weren't looking at each other. This was a nice sister moment, too, freaking bad that they were stuck in this stupid magic containing cage, otherwise it would have been a perfect moment. Maybe if they put their heads together and did some brainstorming they'd be able to figure out a way to escape.

"Well, isn't that nice? The Charmed Ones trapped likes flies in a spiderweb, and they still find the time to bond as sisters." Penelope and Patricia quickly got up from the cold ground and were met by hollow black eyes inside a black hooded cloak. It was the Source, and luckily the evil beast left the hood up. "At least you'll die together."

As the older sister Patricia could feel the urge to protect her sister from this evil son of a bitch bubbling inside her. She refused to let go of Penelope, no matter what happened she wouldn't or couldn't let go. If he killed them now she'd fight 'till her last breath to protect Penelope. How could she spare them now?

"So you're gonna kill us?" She questioned though she knew the answer. She was stalling to save their lives, but she couldn't think of anything. Why wouldn't he kill them? Priscilla wouldn't be much of a threat to him if they were dead. So what could she even say to save their lives?

The Source put his disgusting, skeleton like hands together and formed a fireball between them to throw at either Penelope or Patricia first and then at the other next. "If I get rid of you the Charmed Ones won't be a threat anymore. You'll be dead and that eliminates the threat of the three of you."

He was about to fire and Penelope could see it being aimed at her older sister, so she thought quick on her feet and interrupted him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Patricia turned her head quickly to look at her sister, questions streaming through her green pools. Penelope could almost hear her sister's voice in her head asking 'what are you doing'. Penelope nodded her head slightly at her sister, barely noticable as if to tell her 'I'm buying us some time'.

"And why is that?" The Source challenged Penelope to answer, jumping in with both legs – or whatever he had. The fireball vanished from his hand and he rushed over to the cage, and every kind of fear ran through both the girls' bodies as he stuck his skeleton hands in between the bars and wrapped them around Penelope's neck, violating her with his touch. "ANSWER ME!"

"What if it got out that you only killed the two of us at first?" Penelope managed to get out though it felt like she was being choked, and she could see (though his eyes were black, hollow pools) that the Source was intrigued, and he lessened his grip a little bit. "Wouldn't it be much more impressive if you killed all three Charmed Ones at the same time?"

You could see the Source considering it as he breathed in and out in deep and raspy breaths. The fear inside the girls got bigger and bigger, as he didn't once while considering remove his skeleton hands from Penelope's neck. She held back her tears because she didn't wanna satisfy one part of his evil body by letting him see her fear.

They knew he had bought it when he let go of Penelope in such a hard manner that her hands was ripped out of Patricia's, and she was thrown to the back of the cage, crashing hard into the magic resistant bars of the cage that didn't allow magic to get out of the cage, and by the physical contact with her body the cage detected her powers and zapped her with what could feel like electricity.

Patricia rushed to her sister's side as she dropped to the ground, and then they could hear the Source retreating himself into the black opening into the cave. When they no longer could hear his steps Penelope allowed herself to cry. Patricia lifted her up and rocked her back and forth as it was all she could do to comfort her little sister. If only the Source had done that to her and not Penelope.

**The Key**

Elsewhere at the exact same time Alex and Justin's respective hands were only inches from touching the Book of Shadows. Priscilla held her breath, praying for the best 'cos she knew that if the book decided not to trust them they'd get thrown pretty far back.

Alex closed her eyes and by that preparing herself for the worst, and a few seconds after she could feel the cool cover of the book underneath her fingers, and what was most surprising to her was that she was okay. She didn't get zapped. She opened her eyes and smiled proudly at herself.

Justin was yet to touch the book. He hesitated before reaching the last inch for the book 'cos he was worried the book wouldn't trust him. He had studied the subject, and he knew that the Book of Shadows was a very picky book in selecting who and who not to trust. He finally placed his hand on top of the book and to his pleasure nothing happened.

Priscilla smiled and took the book back. She put it on her lap and opened it, and Justin watched curiously as she flipped through it. Priscilla could feel his eyes on her so she looked up from the book and met his gaze, and she could see the eager in his eyes.

"What?" She questioned, and under any normal circumstances that what would have been rude, but she was more confused and worried by his stare than anything else. She locked eyes with Alex to see if she knew what was up with her brother, but she just shrugged.

"Is there anything about us in there?" Justin wanted to know. It was a big book with a lot of magic in it so maybe they were lucky enough to be in it.

He waited for an answer, but instead Priscilla got up from the chair she was seated in and walked over to the couch instead. She sat down in between Justin and Alex and smiled sweetly at them. Normally that wouldn't have been like Priscilla to do so, but they didn't know that. Normally she would have said something like 'why would you be' or 'none of your damn business', but a lot of things had gone down which made her take a new approach with things.

One of them would be the key to getting her sisters back so instead of one of the rude options, she opted for; "Let's see." And she made sure that they both could see the book as she flipped through the pages. "I'm sorry to say this, but if you're in here you'll probably be in the warlock section. Not that you compare to them in any way, it's just that... Uhm, that's where the wizards section is too."

She quickly got to those pages 'cos it definitely wasn't the first time she had flipped through that back. Alex became curious once they got to that section to see if they were infact in it. They weren't.

"Okay, so we aren't in the big book of magic. Big deal." Alex said and tried to make it out like she didn't really care, but really she did. She was actually a bit disappointed that in that big book of magic they didn't even appear in as much as a mention. She looked at Priscilla and had to wonder, and would it even be Alex if it didn't become verbal? "Uhm, not that it matters – at all, but how does one get into the book?"

"I don't know." Priscilla answered truthfully. She was only nearly 17, and she had just gotten into her powers 4 months ago. She didn't even have all the answers she wanted herself. Things were in this book, and she didn't know how they had gotten there. Well, sort of. It was written by past witches of her family, but she didn't know why the things that were in the book were in there. What made them qualify.

That's where Justin, being the know-it-all he was, came in. "By being a great source of good or a great source of evil if we're talking magical creature. Otherwise it's what the current generation of witches feel important to put in there."

"Thank you, genious." Alex rolled her eyes and pretended that she wasn't bothered by that last statement, though she felt the urge to get in it somehow. That's where her sneaky ways would come in handy.

Justin sensed that Alex was far from impressed by his knowledge, so he used what older brothers do best: 'sibling love'. "Well, at least I have a much better chance to get in it than you. Non-magical beings aren't in there..."

"Actually..." Priscilla interupted, normally she was a big supporter of the sibling bickering as she often argued with Penelope, but lately she regretted every bad word said and wished more than anything to get her sisters back. If only Alex and Justin actually knew what it was like. She wanted to settle their little 'thing' before it took off for real. "... there is a non-magical being in the book. The Ice-Cream Man. He rides around in a magic ice cream truck and plays this melody that attracts demon children, and then he traps them inside the truck where they get taken by The Nothing."

Justin and Alex stopped talking immediately and looked at each, not knowing whether Priscilla was actually serious or not. Then they both looked at Priscilla and she seemed to be. That was so weird.

"But how do we figure out who is the key, and how do we use it?" Justin asked all of the sudden, wanting to get back to business. He had never been the one to beat around the bushes when it came to magic. He was also helping a Charmed One, and that made him sort of eager to act and assist.

Priscilla seemed to be deep in her thoughts. She sat there and went through every single possibility in her head, and then she figured there was only one possibility. "I'm leaning towards it being you, Justin. Mostly because Alex doesn't have any powers which makes her mortal, and they are usually innocents. Why would I bring an innocent to the belly of the beast, whatever the hell the key is supposed to do? That doesn't make any sense. It has to be the one with powers."

Priscilla stood up and headed towards the exit of the layer, and Justin quickly stood up as well, watching her with concern. "Where are you going?" He asked, and Priscilla turned around to look at him. She hadn't told them much about her relationship with her sisters, but he could tell it was so much different than what he had with Alex and Max.

Her eyes shifted a bit. They always did when she didn't know quite what to do or felt out of her element. "Brainstorming." She simply said, but then she saw the Russos' confused and elaborated. "Before we determine who's really the key I have to find out what the key is meant to do."

She left the layer, leaving Justin and Alex there alone to discuss things. Their relationship had been better since Alex had given up her powers, but now they were thrown into what could turn out to be a big magical mess, and they hadn't been that tested since.

"Okay, let me hear it?" Alex said, and Justin looked confused at her. Alex wore her signature devilish smile. "I'm sure you have some annoying theory about all of this."

Justin seemed eager to share, but held it back for a few minutes before he finally burst out to share his 'knowledge'. "I just think that the key has to be some kind of distraction so Priscilla can get to her sisters."

Alex raised an eyebrow at her brother as if to say 'really?' in a sarcastic way. "I'm sorry, Justin, but if that was the case I don't think the title of it would be something as prominent as 'the key'." Alex said and smirked at Justin when she saw him look surprised after hearing the word prominent from her. "And if the key is only meant to be distraction for the Source then you're for sure not it. You couldn't even distract cotton wool."

"Am I detecting a little jealousy because Priscilla thinks that I'm the key?"

"You're not detecting anything," Alex said, trying to sound unaffected as she carried on, "but what do you think Juliet would say if she what's about to go down?"

Justin smiled triumphantly at Alex. "I knew. You're bringing Juliet into this to make me back out. You are jealous."

Alex looked at her brother with a sad expression in her eyes. "I'm not jealous. I'm sad." She revealed, and the smile on Justin's face disappeared, and he now looked slightly concerned in Alex's eyes. "It's in these kind of situations where I wish I still had my magic. I could be more help then, but now I have the title of an 'innocent' and can't do anything to help. Really, when have I even been innocent?"

Justin reached out and put a comforting arm around Alex. At first she looked at him with a weird expression in her because they had never been an intimate pair of siblings, but then she leaned into it, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Do you think about it much?" Justin asked, trying to comfort his sister which was normally uncharted territory for, but so far this day had been everything else than normal for them.

"It doesn't matter right now, Justin." Alex lied, hoping that one day she'd amount to something like her brother. She had thought relinquishing her magic would have helped, but she was still attempting to get there. "What matters is the adventure you're about to take with the Charmed Ones. You're gonna get in that book for helping to save Priscilla's sisters, and I promise I'll be proud of you."

Justin smiled at his sister's kind words. They were rare, but appreciated. He still wished to comfort her, though, to relieve some of her sadness.

"Hey, mortals so happen to find their way into the book on occasions." He tried, and Alex offered him a half genuine smile for those words. "Who says you won't?"

They sat there in silence for awhile, both enjoying the lovely sibling moment they hadn't had that many of while they were both magical, and Justin tried to convince himself that had nothing to do with it. He just wanted to let the thought slide so that Alex could quicker find her place without magic.

While sitting there they thought about everything that happened so far. Who the key was, and what Priscilla was up to now. Surely she trusted them enough to come back and let them in on what the next step was?"

**The Key**

In the mean time in the sandwich shop Priscilla was pacing back and forth, trying to figure out what to do. She had closed the drapes on the windows so people wouldn't be able to look inside. It was only incase she had to do magic.

How was she supposed to figure out who the key was on her own? The two smart sisters were locked up in some cage only God knew where down in the Underworld. How was she supposed to figure out what it was meant to do for that matter?

She knew she had a Whitelighter she could call, but she wasn't sure what good that would do at that moment. It was Underworld stuff. Stuff a Whitelighter wasn't allowed to interfere in. Sure they were a guide to everything magical, and what they didn't know the Elders filled them in on. They always seemed to know what evil was up to, and what was going on in the magical community. If neither the Elders or Whitelighters knew what was going on you knew it was serious.

Witches were assigned a Whitelighter for a reason, she knew that, but she needed to know what was going on in the Underworld. She needed to know exactly where her sisters was, the patterns of the demons down there, what she needed for a surprise attack, etc. There were so many questions there could only be answered by infiltrating the Underworld, and she couldn't risk her own life by going down there, but like mentioned earlier if there was one place a Whitelighter wasn't allowed then it was the Underworld.

What was the big deal, really? Whitelighters were technically already dead. Whitelighters had all once been mortal, and by doing some great good while they were alive they achieved their wings as Whitelighters, guardians for witches. If they died, were killed or somehow lost their way down the line however then they wouldn't achieve their wings, and they would become lost. To prevent that to happen future Whitelighters had Whitelighters as well, but they were always disguised as something. They always had a cover. Maybe they would pose as friend, plumber, social worker and so on, but ultimately their job would be to guide their charges (as the witches and future Whitelighters of a Whitelighter were called) and make sure they wouldn't lose their way so they could achieve their wings.

Keeping that in mind, Priscilla didn't understand what the risk or danger would be for a Whitelighter to go down there and search the terrain, but it was apparently some stupid Whitelighter rule made by the Elders among other stupid rules.

It was frustrating. Priscilla didn't know how to get to the bottom of things without her sisters. She needed them. They were the Charmed Ones for a reason, and she didn't know how to kick demon butt without them. She needed guidance, help.

She let out a defeated sigh. "Peter!?" She yelled out, trying desperately not to fall apart. She kept pacing back and forth while she yelled out again; "Peter!?"

Blue and white orbs formed behind her, and young guy appeared. He looked like he was in his early/mid twenties. He was a tall, handsome guy with chestnut brown hair and brown eyes to match, and his eyes were filled with so much kindness. He had a small birth mark on the side of his neck, and he was neatly shaved. He was tanned and looked like he was in great shape.

Priscilla turned around and came face to face with him, getting a huge fright as she hadn't heard him orb in. "Shit, Peter, you scared me!" She exclaimed and hit him across the chest.

Peter groaned loudly at the pain. Sure, she was smaller than him, but ever since she and her sisters had become witches they had also taken up martial arts incase their powers were ever down, so it really hurt to say the least.

"Hey, what did you do that for?" He yelled as he rubbed where she had hit him to ease the pain. "You called me, remember?"

"Yeah, but you don't just sneak up on a girl like that." Priscilla defended herself, crossing her arms.

Peter sent her a very saying look. "Again, you called me." He said, and then he reached out and pulled Priscilla's arms apart, gently taking her hand. "What's on your mind, Priss?"

Priscilla pointed to one of the tables in the sandwich shop as if to say 'can we sit', and then they walked over there and sat down. Peter never let go of her hand as they sat down.

"I am in over my head here, Peter." She revealed, and the pain was very clear in her eyes. She felt defeated, and she was worried that she wouldn't be able to save her sisters. She didn't know what to do or where to start. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm practically new at this, and I don't know what I'm meant to be doing how I'm supposed to save them."

"Save who?" Peter questioned, looking very confused at Priscilla. Ooops, had she not remembered to call him and tell him that his two other charges had been taken by the Source? Priscilla didn't say a word so he repeated his question; "Save who, Priscilla?"

Priscilla let go of Peter's hand and stood up, taking a few steps away from him. This was gonna hit hard, and she didn't know how he was gonna react. He, the Whitelighter of the Charmed Ones, would surely get in trouble when the Elders learned that two of the Charmed Ones were now missing due to the Source.

"The Source has Patricia and Penelope." She mumbled in a barely audible way, trying to delay Peter's reaction a little bit which was probably stupid if you thought about what was on the line.

"What?" Peter urged for her to repeat herself in a way that he would be able to hear.

She closed her eyes and then yelled very loudly; "The Source has Patricia and Penelope!"

"WHAT?" Peter exclaimed, jumping up from his seat. He rushed over to Priscilla and grabbed a hold of her arms, but not in a harsh way. "When did this happen?"

"Last night. I barely got away." Priscilla revealed and looked away from Peter's gaze. The way he could look at her sometimes could be heartbreaking. It was always heartbreaking to think that she had somehow disappointed him.

Peter let go of Priscilla and walked away from her. He was standing by the counter when he turned around and looked at her. "Last night? And you only bothered to call me now?" He wanted to know, and Priscilla knew that all of his questions were legit, but she didn't even know specifically why herself.

"I thought I could handle it." She tried, but immediately knew it sounded lame. She wasn't handling anything. "I mean I took their most priced possesion, me, and tried every scrying method possible, and finally I asked what the key was to get them back, and the crystal landed here. I did the weird finger thing, you know, and projected here. I've met a wizard and former wizard, and it turns out one of them is the key. I'm just not sure which one it is yet. I'm not even sure what the key is supposed to do either, but I'll figure it out. I hope." She paused and looked at Peter with pleading eyes. "I'm just not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm not sure about any of it really, but I'll figure out a way."

Peter walked back to Priscilla and gently placed his hand on her arms, tilting his head a little to make sure they had eye contact. "You listen to me now, Priss, you're never in this alone. I'm your Whitelighter for a reason. I'm here to guide you through these things and help you along the way." He explained, and she offered him a small, half-hearted smile. "I'm not someone you call when either of you needs healing." He paused and let go of Priscilla, and then he walked towards the door and stopped right in front of it. "The first thing you need to do is place a protection crystal in every opening of this house. Every door and every window so the Source won't suddenly come for you, do your hear me?"

He turned around to look at Priscilla, and she nodded her head to what he had just said. She closed her eyes and held out her hands, pointing out her index fingers and placed them on top of each other, one facing up and one down, not even an inch apart. It only took a few seconds for the box of crystals the Charmed Ones had in their house to appear right before her. She bent down to pick it up and put it on the table.

Peter walked over to her and put his arms around her waist. "When I leave you place them, okay?" He paused. She nodded. "After that only humans and good magic will be able to cross. I'll check with the Elders and see what their take is on this, and what they want you to do next. When I find out who the key is for sure, and what they want you to do next I'll be back. You do not cross the crystals, do you hear me?" He paused, but Priscilla didn't appear to have heard him so he repeated, loudly; "Do you hear me?"

She finally nodded and gazed into Peter's honest eyes. She wasn't sure if that nod had been a lie yet or not. She had always been impulsive and wasn't sure if she would suddenly rush out of there to save her sisters without waiting for Peter to come back. She wasn't sure if she would suddenly take either Justin or Alex under her arm and start a risky rescue mission, but for now it was the truth.

"But how am I supposed to just sit and wait after I've placed the crystals?" She wanted to know, but Peter didn't have an answer for that. He didn't know what a love for a sibling felt like, he only knew of a different kind of love. Her expression turned to sad as she kept her gaze on him. "They are my sisters."

"I know." Peter said and held tighter on to her waist to sort of ease her worry a little, but he wasn't sure if it was helping or not especially with the sad smile she wore. "This is probably gonna sound insensitive, but no matter how hard it is we can't risk all three of you. You have to stay put."

"You're right, that was insensitive." She said and wriggled out of his grib. She turned around and began to walk away from him, and he followed. She stopped, but kept her back to him.

"Look at me." She didn't. "Look at me, Priss." She did. "I know it was insensitive, but listen to me." He begged, and she didn't seem to object. She merely crossed her arms. "The Source wants all three of you dead, he's always wanted that, and as long as you stay here behind the crystals he won't be able to get all three of you, and your sisters will stay alive."

"And what won't he do to them in the mean time?" Priscilla wanted to know, her arms still crossed. "How am I supposed to stay here with that in mind?"

Peter sighed and stepped closer to Priscilla, but she backed away. "I know it will be difficult, but what will be worse than all three of the Charmed Ones dead?" He reasoned with with her, and so far she didn't object. "No-one will have the power to stop him then, and what won't that mean for all the innocents in the world?"

He was right. He always was, but did he have to use the innocent card? He always did that when he tried to reason with her and her sisters. He knew it was their weak point.

She let her arms fall to her side and sighed. "You're right." She said, finally giving in to reason. "But please be quick. I'll go out of my mind if you don't hurry back, and I want them back now before he really hurts them."

Peter stepped closer to Priscilla, and this time she didn't move away. "I won't let that happen, I promise." He said and locked his brown eyes with hers. "They are like sisters to me. More importantly they are your sisters, and I love you."

He placed his hands gently on each side of her face, and then he leaned down and place a tender, sweet kiss on her lips which quickly turned into something deeper, but then he disappeared in the middle of it in a swirl of blue and white orbs.

Priscilla groaned out loud in annoyance. "Why does he always do that?" She exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air. She heard a throat being cleared behind her and quickly turned around, and there stood Justin and Alex. "How long have you been standing there?"

Justin didn't answer the question, instead he had one of his own; "Was that your Whitelighter?"

"What's it to you?"

He shrugged, but still had follow-up question; "I thought it was against the rules for a Whitelighter and a witch to be together?"

Alex didn't know of such a rule, but then again she had never been one for rules, and all of this was new to her after all. She just had to take Justin's word for it. They had a little rule breaker on their hands, just like herself.

Priscilla didn't answer his question, and why should she when his voice and his eyes were so full of blame. Who was he to judge? So instead she threw it right back in his face. "It's prefered over vampires." She turned around and picked the box of crystals up from the table they were standing on, and then she handed them to Justin with a fake nice smile. "Why don't you be a good wizard and help the Charmed Ones by placing a crystal in every window and door of the house?"

Justin looked in the box with curiosity. Crystals from a Charmed One. "What do they do?" He asked, eagerly, as he picked up on of the white and purple crystals from the box, examining it carefully. He seemed to have forgotten about the incident that had just happened when he got the Charmed Ones' crystals handed to him from an actual Charmed One.

"They protect from evil." Justin's eyes grew big like a little child at Christmas among all those gifts, but Priscilla didn't have time for his Power of Three fetish right now. "Now go!"

Justin quickly placed a crystal in every window and door in the sandwich shop, and then hurried up the stairs to go place them in every other opening in the house. He had completely forgotten about everything. He was simply eager and excited to help a Charmed One.

Alex eyed Priscilla suspiciously, and then she stepped closer to her. "That's what you meant by the whole forbidden love rant. The whole 'we do it anyways' gibberish." Alex said, having completely figured Priscilla out. Alex had never been in love herself, but the fact that Priscilla would break the rules for something like that made her like her a lot more. Alex figured it was something she would also do if she ever fell in love. Alex kept her suspicious gaze at Priscilla and then continued; "You're in love with your whitelighter, aren't you?"

Priscilla nodded and said; "Yeah, but that's besides the point right now." She paused and started heading towards the door to the layer. "Is the Book still in there?"

"Yeah." Alex replied and followed after Priscilla in there. "Why are you avoiding the subject?"

Priscilla pick up the Book of Shadows as soon as she got into the layer and turned around to face Alex. "Because what's important right now is saving my sisters, and we need to figure out a way to get them back, and what the key is supposed to be doing." She explained, and Alex just looked at her with a very saying look. "Don't look at me that way. What I have with Peter will always come second next the greater good."

Alex sat down on the couch while Priscilla kept standing the awkwardly with the Book in her hands. Alex didn't know whatever the hell the greater good meant, but it was probably the way it sounded. It had to be tiring to be that dutiful which was the exact reason why Alex had always been one to avoid it.

"Doesn't it get tiring? Don't you just want to lose yourself in the moment?" Alex wanted to know, but she didn't know what Priscilla was usually like. "Don't you just wanna saw 'screw the greater good' and do what you feel like?"

"It gets tiring, yes, but when it comes to Peter that's what I have to do." Priscilla explained and finally sat down on the chair next to the couch in which Alex was seated, never letting go of the book. "It's forbidden, just like your brother said, so if the Elders ever found it we don't wanna give them an excuse to break us up. We don't want them to be able to say that we let our relationship get in the way of our work." She paused and smiled at Alex. "Trust me, I used to be plenty reckless with my magic before my sisters disappeared. It's like it went away the minute they were taken, but that's because I'm their only hope."

Alex knew that she didn't have any powers anymore and wasn't much help then, but she wanted to have contributed at least something, anything. She knew Justin would probably turn out to be the key because he had powers and could actually do something to help, but so could she. Not in the field, but elsewhere.

"I know I'm not a wizard anymore, and I know Justin is probably the key, but is there anything I can do to help?" Alex said and sounded quite fragile which took Priscilla by surprise. She hadn't heard that before, but then again she had only known Alex a day. "I want to do something at least, please?"

Priscilla, who had always been extremely protective of The Book of Shadows, handed it to Alex with a smile. "You can flip through the Book and see if you can find something helpful." Priscilla said and stood up, getting ready to leave. "I'm gonna go see if your brother has placed the crystals properly. One wrongly placed is window for evil." She walked towards the door, and before she exited she turned around to face Alex. "Yell if you find something, okay?"

Alex nodded, and then Priscilla left the layer, leaving Alex to flip through the pages of the books. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, but she surely she would know once she saw it. There were a lot of spells, incantations, info on demons, warlock and other magical beings, and how you were supposed to summon some of them. There were also recipes on potions, hopefully she'd find something valid and thereby be helpful in the rescuing the Charmed Ones.

**The Key**

_And that was the second chapter :) . I hope you enjoyed it 'cos I enjoyed writing it. Who do you think is the key ? Is it Justin or is it Alex ? Just know that everything that's happening in the fic right now is not what it seems ! Priscilla is leaning towards it being Justin, but it might not be . You'll be surprised with the outcome of everything . I know this was very based on Priscilla and her sisters and stuff, but I'm just introducing everything, and trust me; Justin and Alex will be a lot more featured in upcoming chapters . They both have their very own storylines ;) . One is the key, one might get possessed, both will have an epic love story (one will arrive later than the other) and so on . Fear not ;) . Before I go I'd like for you to review and tell me what you think of everything . What do you think about Priscilla so far, and what do you think of her sisters whom I introduced in this chapter ? And what about Peter ? I wanna hear your thoughts on everything ;) . Next chapter should hopefully be here soon :) ._

_**AK-tutti**_


	3. Chapter 3

_Hey . I know it's been a long time since the last time I update this fic, and I know it's cliche to say this, but I've been really busy with some of my other fics . I've promised myself and some others, though, that I'll try to spread my focus more so all of my stories will be updated faster . I really do hope it's been worth the wait ._

**Disclaimer; **I don't own WoWP or Charmed, but I do own a few original characters.

**The Key**

**Chapter 3.**

"Cashmereus Appearus!"

Pacing back and forth in her room, Alex didn't know why that was the first spell that popped in to her mind. She hadn't expected anything, but still felt a slight stint of disappointment.

Ever since this Priscilla Halliwell character had popped into their lives, searching for a certain key, Alex couldn't help feeling just a little inferior for being ruled out so quickly when it came to finding out who the key was.

She had felt like such a big screw-up back when she had her magic and had therefore decided to take herself out of the game with a spell. That was the short version anyway. It should have made her life easier. There should have been less worries, but now she felt useless with her inability to help.

She had gotten the 'innocent stamp' by this Priscilla character, and since when had that been a word to describe Alex? Since when had she become this cast away person? She got why Priscilla had ruled her out, but that didn't mean it didn't upset her.

They didn't know yet what the key was supposed to do, but it had something to do with magic so therefore it couldn't possibly be Alex, and for some reason she found herself wanting to help. In the past that had been a rare thing for Alex to want to do, and it had only ever happened when there was no way else, but she had changed a lot these past few months.

The worst part was having magic all around her. Justin with his, and now this new person in their life who brought this whole other magical world with her, and Alex could never be a part of that without her magic. She really missed magic, and she had dug up her old wand earlier that morning and had performed various spells in her room, hoping that for some reason her magic had come back. No such luck, though."

"Cashmereus Appearus!"

She should probably try other spells as well, but she figured that she should start with smaller, innocent spells at first, and then maybe her magic would come back. She couldn't start with those big spells after not having magic for so long. She had to ease herself into it, but again: No such luck!

Nothing happened, and each time her spell failed she got more and more frustrated! She wanted to throw her wand or maybe break it in half, but then she would never get her magic back. There had to be a way! She wanted to feel useful again. She wanted to be part of this new magical adventure. She wanted to help!

The depressing fact that none of her spells worked had caused Alex to still be in her night T-shirt, and that only happened when she extremely tired or really upset. Today she was really upset.

Normally she would probably talk to Harper about it, but while this whole saving the Charmed Ones business was going on they had decided to send her away for her own safety. Her best friend was currently staying with Justin's friend, Zeke. Those two were also together.

She could try talking to Justin about how she felt, but he would probably just start lecturing her about the fact that she had made her own choice, and choices had consequenses, and now she had to deal with them. She didn't need that. She had a feeling that would only make her more frustrated!

"Cashmereus Appearus!"

Alex had lost count on how many times the spell had now failed, and she let the emotions get the best of her, allowing a tear to escape the corner of her eye. She rarely cried, but this time she couldn't help it.

"Are you okay, Alex?" She turned around and saw Justin standing in her doorway, looking at his younger sister with deep concern. "Hey, are you crying?" He gave himself the permission to come into her room, and then he rushed over to his sister to comfort her. "Come here."

He wrapped his arms around her in a deep hug, and that did it. Alex lost all the control she had left, and now the tears were traveling down her cheeks in a race. She sobbed like she had never done before, and Justin only held her tighter, trying his best to console her.

"Why were you trying to cast spells? You've relinquised your magic." Justin questioned, trying his best to sound as sensitive as possible because he could sense that Alex was in a very fragile state, and he didn't want to add fuel to the fire.

"I know." Alex said, trying to hold back her sobs, somewhat successful. She moved away from Justin's hug, with lazy steps making her way to the bed, slowly, but surely sitting down. "But I think I've made a mistake. Now that all this is going on I hate that I can't help. I want so bad to be useful, but I've been dubbed innocent and ruled out as the key so now I can't help." She paused. Not because she needed a breath, not because she had to prepare herself for her next speech, but because she anticipated a lecture coming on. It never came, though. Justin just stood there with focus, waiting and listening to his sister. With a sigh she continued: "I just... I... I really miss my magic, and I want it back, but now because of a moment of weakness... I can't."

Alex looked at her older brother, the sadness in her eyes clear as crystal. He could also tell that she was done speaking for now. He didn't know what to say, though. What could he say? He couldn't make it better, and he couldn't make it go away. All he could do was show his support, and hopefully that would be good enough for now.

"I get that you miss your magic. I would too. I know that's not any consolation, but I'm here for you, okay?" He raised his brows, allowing an expression that clearly said 'do you hear me?' to play across his face. Alex offered him a sad smile as a response so he knew now that it had helped a little, and now all he needed to do was spread a little bit of hope, and then this would have been a good brother/sister moment. "But hey, who says it can't be done? Maybe you can get your magic back? I'll help, and maybe Priscilla will too. After all, we're helping her."

Now Alex actually smiled for real. There was no sadness behind her eyes, but instead a little twinkle. Justin really helped, and that spark of hope was just what she needed, but she was still too upset to get dressed, but happy enough to take on the day and whatever it brought.

Justin returned Alex's smile for a brief second, but then he grew serious. It worried Alex. "It seems to be a day of magic meltdowns." That statement came out of nowhere, doing a good job confusing Alex. He saw the confused look in his sister's eyes, and then it hit him... There was something she could do to help! "There's actually something you _can_ help with. Priscilla seems to have completely lost it, and for some reason she'll only listen to you."

"Lost it?" Alex questioned, wondering what Justin meant.

"Follow me." He just said and walked out of the room. Alex did as she was told. She got up from the bed and followed after her brother.

They reached the stairs, and Justin ran down first. Alex slowly followed, and as soon as her foot reached the last step she knew what he'd meant. She had never seen the sub station like that before.

The windows were covered over with fabrics that Alex didn't even recognise, but it was well thought through. Priscilla was sitting at the table right in the middle of the room, the exact same table where they had made her acquaintance for the first time.

All kinds of magical do-dads were spread across the table. At the top of the table was a Ouija board, but what Priscilla needed that for was unknown to Alex. The Book of Shadows was also lying on the table, no surprise there. In the middle there was this small cauldron looking thing made of metal with smoke rising from it.

It looked pretty innocent to Alex, but then Priscilla pulled out a knife that was a couple of sizes (or five) bigger than a pocket knife.

"Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing?" Alex exclaimed from her stand by the stairs, and then rushed towards the table, brushing right past Justin in the the process. She freaked when she saw the knife, but what normal person wouldn't?

Priscilla looked up, acknowledging Justin and Alex's presence for a brief second by glaring at them with an emotionless expression in her eyes. She turned her focus back on the knife and smoking cauldron.

She brought the knife up to her eye level, and then she lifted her other hand, holding out her index finger. She closed the gap between the knife and her finger, pricking and twisting the knife slowly into her finger. She let the knife slide out of her hand and fall down on the table.

She moved the finger she had pricked over the cauldron, and then she used the thumb and index finger on her other hand to spread the cut, letting the blood drip into the smoking cauldron, and then she finally spoke with a voice that sounded so dead that it was frightening:

"_Blood to blood, I summon thee  
Blood to blood, return to me!_"

Alex didn't know what was supposed to happen, but nothing did. "Priscilla..." Alex tried getting through to their new friend, stepping closer to her. Priscilla only briefly looked up, and then she turned back to the cauldron. Alex tried again: "Priscilla?"

Priscilla didn't seem to react, though. All she did was spread her cut again to allow the blood to drip into the cauldron once again. Same procedure as before, but with one exception. This time she spoke with more force in her voice.

"_BLOOD TO BLOOD, I SUMMON THEE_

_BLOOD TO BLOOD, RETURN TO ME!_"

Just like before nothing happened, and now an emotion actually featured on Priscilla's face. She looked broken, more broken than Alex had felt earlier. Alex took the slight turn of events as her cue so she sat down on the chair next to Priscilla.

Alex took the hand on which Priscilla had pricked a finger in hers, and by that action she got eye contact from the desperate girl. The look in her eyes, had Alex known her better or more than a couple of days, would have been absolutely heartbreaking.

As Alex inspected the cut, not that she was an expert, she noticed that it for some reason wouldn't stop bleeding. It probably wasn't alarming. For all she knew Priscilla could have used a magical knife that somehow made it bleed longer, but maybe it would still be better to have a certain Whitelighter look at it.

"Maybe we should try calling Peter." It should have been a question, but it wasn't because Alex really felt that they should. She was still studying the cut, but then she turned her head towards Justin, waving him over.

He sat down on the chair next to Alex, and then she grabbed Priscilla's hand tighter and pulled it towards Justin so he could examin the cut too, not that they were experts.

She looked at her brother, her brown pools filled with concern. The cut could be infected and whatnot. "What do you think, Justin?"

He sat there for awhile, deep in thought, just studying the cut. It did really continue to bleed like it was being paid not to stop. "I think it would be a good idea." He concluded as he reached out and grabbed a napkin from the neighbour table, wrapping it tightly around Priscilla's finger to keep the bleeding in control until Peter got there.

Priscilla shook her head. "No!" She objected, retrieving her hand from Alex's grib. She kept the napkin around her finger, but the rest of their well-meaning behavior she didn't want. "He needs to find out if Justin really is the key, and in that case what he's supposed to be doing. I don't want to interrupt him by having him come here and heal an insignificant cut." She had raised her voice at them. She didn't mean to, but the frustration of not being able to anything was taking more and more toll on her. Priscilla hated showing weakness, but the tears that were now running down her cheeks couldn't be stopped. "I want my sisters back, and I want them now!"

She smacked her hand down on the table on the little space that wasn't covered by magical things with her non-injured hand. That's when Alex noticed that she was wearing a ring. It kind of looked like a lightningbolt. It had the same zig-zag pattern, but with way more zigs and zags if that even made sense? It was all silver, and there was a little space in between the silver forming the zig-zags. Alex had never seen a ring like that before.

"What ring is that?" She asked, the curiosity getting the better of her as she pointed at the ring, anything less than discrete. "Is that a lightningbolt?"

Priscilla looked down at her hand on the table, and then she pulled the hand away so they couldn't see it any longer. "It's just a family heirloom. I inherited it from my father when he died." She explained, although she didn't want to reveal more to this human and wizard than necessary. She had to be nice and accessable to gain their trust and help, though, and they did notice the ring so there was no way around it. "But it's not lightning. Supposedly it symbolises an earthquake."

"Why would you have a ring of an earthquake?" Justin chipped in from his seat, and he earned one of those looks that made him think that Priscilla perhaps didn't like him.

"I told you it was a family heirloom. It's not like I chose it, it just belongs to me." She bit at him. She knew she was wrong to, and that it wouldn't earn her their ultimate friendship and help, but he brought it out in her. She somehow felt the need to push him away, and she couldn't figure out why.

Justin didn't say anything more, but Alex did however have another question to follow the one her brother had before. "But if it belonged to your father, then how come it fits you perfectly?" You had to wonder. Priscilla had really slim fingers so it was peculiar that a man's ring would fit her that well.

Priscilla smiled as though the answer was obvious, but replied nonetheless. "It's a magical ring. It adjusts its size to fit the owner of it."

Justin had a lot of questions. About her behavior, about the ring, about everything really. He couldn't ask, though, because besides the whole forbidden love speech she had only been hostile with him. He didn't understand why. The Book trusted him, and so should she. He didn't know why she didn't. Sure, he was a wizard, and the Book said not to trust wizards, but it trusted _him_! Didn't she trust the Book? So many questions that the witch wouldn't answer.

"Then how..."

"Can we not talk about the ring or anything related to it?" Priscilla demanded more than asked, cutting off Justin before he even had a chance to finish his sentence. She then took it upon herself to change the subject. "What's going on with you?"

"Alex has had a pretty rough morning." He told Priscilla while searching his sister for signs that it was okay to tell their guest that, and then it caught him. She had just let him finish a sentence. Wow! He was gonna take full advantage of that and see how much he could get out before she could cut him off again. "She feels like she's made a mistake and desperately wants her magic back."

"Really?" Priscilla looked at Alex to see if that was true. The former wizard didn't say anything, but only nodded. "I think I might be able to help with that." Alex's face lit up upon hearing those words. "I said might. I'll try. My wiccan magic won't necessarily be able to counteract your wizardry, but there's a good chance."

"I'll take it!" Alex exclaimed right away. A good chance was better than nothing, and she really wanted her magic back. Maybe it wouldn't work, Alex knew that, but there was still a chance.

Priscilla started flipping through the Book of Shadows while still adressing her words towards Alex. "What did you use when you stripped your powers?" She asked as she flipped back a page, having gone too far. "A potion? A spell?"

"A spell."

Priscilla glanced up at Alex for a brief moment, and then her attention was in the Book again, flipping the pages again. She must have settled on the wrong page. It took some time, but Priscilla finally stopped at a page towards the middle of the Book.

"Do you remember the exact words you used in the spell?" Alex nodded and was handed a piece of paper by Priscilla. "I need you to write it down on this piece of paper. We're gonna try a 'To Undo a Spell' spell." She explained as Alex accepted the paper from her and started scribbling.

While Alex wrote, Priscilla instructed Justin to get her a candle and something to light it with. He was back before Alex was even done writing, and he handed the candle and matches to Priscilla as the very last word was scribbled down.

Priscilla placed the candle on the table and lit it. She asked for the paper on which Alex's spell was written, and it was handed to her nearly before she had even asked for it. With a quick glance in the book to make sure she said the right words, Priscilla attempted to cast the spell.

She folded the piece of paper with Alex's spell neatly and stuck it into the flame of the candle, watching it burn for a few seconds before she said anything to make sure the flames caught on properly.

"_Guided Spirits,  
Hear our plea  
Annul this magic  
Let it be!_"

Please, let it be, Alex thought to herself. She pressed her eyes shut and prayed harder than she had ever prayed before for the magic to work. When she opened her eyes again the paper in Priscilla's hand had burned completely, and the spell was now supposed to have worked.

"Try a spell." Priscilla said, for once in her life trying to sound encouragingly. She didn't know if she wanted the spell to work or not. She couldn't find that emotion inside her. She really liked Alex and on some level wanted to see her happy, but did they really need any more wizards?

Alex pushed out her chair and stood up to perform a spell. She didn't have her old wand on her at that very moment, but minor spells didn't always acquire wands so she had to try.

"Cashmereus Appearus."

She tried the spell she had attempted earlier that day just for the hell of it. It was the spell she remembered the best because of the whole blow out that followed after she had cast it the first time, but just like earlier; nothing happened.

Alex felt herself become more desperate than she probably should. "Quick, Justin, hand me your wand." She demanded, the desperation clear in her eyes. She held out her hand to accept the wand which Justin immediately pulled out of his puck and handed to her. She flicked the wand.

"Cashmereus Appearus."

Nothing.

"Cashmereus Appearus, Cashmereus Appearus, CASHMEREUS APPEARUS!"

"Nothing is gonna happen, Alex." Priscilla said, genuinely sympathising with the girl who so badly wanted her magic back. On some level she could relate. There were things she desperately wanted as well. She blew out the candle, and Justin carefully retrieved his wand from Alex so he wouldn't upset her further. "The spell didn't work, I'm sorry. Maybe my magic couldn't cancel out your spell, or maybe there wasn't enough magic behind my spell."

Justin stuck his wand back in his pocket. "It was worth a try, though." He concluded to somehow try and ease the situation, but Alex just stood there, speechless and in shock. She had really thought...

"Alex, we'll find another way. I promise." Priscilla said, attempting to get eye contact with a very stunned Alex. She eventually succeeded. "We'll find another way. With all the magic in this Book, all the ways to unbind powers, and all the reversal spells. We'll find something, but not today. You're too affected by a previous attempt, but some day when the shock has worn completely off..." Alex nodded along to Priscilla's words, and they seemed to console her. That was an ability Priscilla didn't know she had. "We'll find another way."

Alex walked back upstairs, hoping to sleep the rest of the day away. Priscilla stayed where she was, her mind set on figuring out how to get her sisters back. Justin wanted to help, but Priscilla wouldn't let him. She ignored him and flipped through the book until she stumbled upon a spell that might be able to help...

**The Key**

The cave seemed darker than usual. The rocks that the walls were made up of were in a darker shade than they normally were, or maybe they were just imagining things? The cave wasn't as well lit as earlier.

The Source had only let the two pillars on each side of the entrance to the cave stayed lit by fire. They were sure it was supposed to mock them as they stood the in the middle of the cave inside a magic resistant cage, captivated.

It had to be some sort of twisted, evil humor. He wasn't the Source of All Evil for nothing. The cave remained well lit enough for them to still be able to see the Grimoir from their captivities. If they weren't trapped and unable to do magic, they really needed to do something about that Book. If they 'eliminated' the Book the Source probably wouldn't be as powerful, and then they might be able to vanguish him. Those were very big ifs.

They were, however, still captivated. They were sitting helplessly inside the cage, being very careful not to touch the bars. Usually nothing happened if you just touched them, but ever since Penelope were thrown into the bars and was electricuted they had been extra careful about it.

Penelope's stomach churned with hunger, making loud rumbling noises. It didn't go unnoticed by Patricia. She was hungry, too. They hadn't eaten since they were kidnapped, but they didn't know how long that was. They didn't know how time worked down in the Underworld, but Patricia's guess was at least a couple of days or maybe more. The best guess was that time maybe moved a little slower down there with it being the Underworld, only one step from hell.

It wasn't like they hadn't been offered food by their evil 'host', and although they weren't vegetarians, raw meat wasn't something they wanted to eat. They weren't wild animals at the zoo, but by the way the Source watched them and laughed when he fed them, made it seem like he thought so.

"I'm so tired." Penelope said in a monotone, emotionless way that illustrated her point. She wanted nothing more than to just lie down and go to sleep and wake up later, and then it had all been a dream, but it wasn't. It was a cruel reality.

"You can't go to sleep." Patricia sounded as tired as Penelope did. She didn't even have the energy to manage eye contact. She had her arms wrapped around her legs with her head resting on her knees, trying not to doze off. "We can't let him get that power."

If they fell asleep they were defenseless, and if the Source then changed his mind back and decided to kill them right away, they wouldn't be able to do or say anything to prevent it. They couldn't fall asleep. That wasn't a luxury they could afford.

"I'm hungry, too." Penelope then said, still with the monotone voice. She was drained by tiredness and hunger, and she could barely muster the words she said.

"I would worry about thirst." Patricia replied just the same as she finally managed to look up, her green eyes meeting her little sister's blue ones. It was weird that all three sisters had different eye colors. Green, blue and brown, but that wasn't important now. What was important was this: "We can easily survive without food, but it doesn't take long to dehydrate."

Penelope looked straight forward, watching the Grimoir intensely. It was so surreal that it was almost like the Book of Shadows' counterpart, a great source of evil, and there it was mocking them. They both knew that it was there for that purpose alone. Everything the Source did was evil and well thought out, and then it struck her.

"The Source wouldn't let us dehydrate or even starve to death." She didn't remove her gaze from the Grimoir as she let her older sister in on her thoughts. "It would hurt his evil reputation if we died that way, and he would lose his status as the Source."

"You're probably right." Said the oldest of the Charmed Ones. The green-eyed beauty with black hair who only looked like a shadow of herself now, the sister who loved the most, and the only one who truly knew what it meant to do it unconditionally.

Her hair was starting to get greasy, and it was burning at the roots like it always did when it needed to be washed. Her teeth were dry, and when she let her tongue glide over them she could practically feel all the dirt on them. She could feel how badly she needed to brush them. If she got her very first cavity in this cage she would send the bill to the Source. Her skin was starting to get irritated, and it really needed to be rinsed. Her dirty clothes were clinging to her skin which was clear sign that it had been worn for too many day and seriously needed at good wash. She really did look like the shadow of herself

For some reason her younger sister didn't look as bad. Sure, the glint in her otherwise gorgeous blue eyes had disappeared, but her brown hair was far from greasy. Her clothes were dirty as well, but wasn't clinging to her body. Her skin was beginning to get dry, but it was far from irritated, and why that was remained a questionmark. It was like her hair had just been washed which was impossible. They had been in that cage for God knows how many days after all.

"Don't you wish that we as the Charmed Ones were somehow excluded from the magic resistant cage rule?" It came out of nowhere as Patricia began to watch the book as well. "I could send that Book flying. Maybe into a volcano."

"Ssssh." If the Source heard that it could have fatal consequeses, and Penelope was after all the sister who worried the most. Too much, actually.

They sat in silence for awhile, both on Book watch. Eventually it was broken by Patricia who managed get up and walk to the side of the cage closest to the Grimoir.

"I might have found a loophole." She whispered just loud enough for Penelope to hear, causing the younger girl to stand up and walk as quickly as possible to her sister's side. They were only inches from the magic resistant bars, still not wanting to risk a zap. "The bars might be wide enough to get my arm through without touching, and then I will be outside as well as in here, and that might allow me to do a little magic."

"What kind of magic?" Penelope questioned, an immediate worry washing over her. What was there to perform her magic on, and what good would it even do? Wouldn't it alert the Source if they tried something, and what could they even do? Rocks, pillars and fire were the only things there. Oh yeah, and the Grimoir. What was Patricia gonna do? Knock down a pillar to set fire to the Grimoir?

Penelope locked eyes with her older sister and saw that the glint had gotten back in her eyes. She had looked defeated before, but now Patricia looked like someone who had far from given up, and who might actually gain the upperhand.

"There has to be an incantation to let us out of the cage, and the Source is the only one with that power, and that _Book_ is his." She explained, nodding towards the book, causing Penelope to go from worried to pure terrified.

"But that's dark magic. We're not allowed to do that." Again with rules and the worry. She was the most well read out of the sisters as well. She was the only one who had read the entire Book of Shadows which she did right after they had become witches. Therefore she knew all the rules and more than the rest about magic, but it was a big book and she far from remembered it all.

Patricia knew she wasn't supposed to in a situation like this, but she got annoyed with her sister. "What's more important? Freedom or rules?" She snapped at her already fragile little sister, but Penelope knew it was just the pressure of it the situation. At least she hoped so. "You pick."

Penelope took another glance at the book and then decided; "Freedom."

"Thought so." Patricia stuck arm through the bars without touching. She held out her index finger and flicked it back towards them with her eye on the book.

Patricia's power was Telekinesis. In the very beginning it came from her eyes, but she had since then learned to channel it through her hands, now being able to move things by flicking a finger.

The Grimoir flew down from its stand of rocks and landed on the ground. So far, so good. Patricia flicked her finger towards them again to make it fly nearer to them. It did, slightly. So she flicked her finger harder, making the Book fly across the cave and bang into the cage with great force.

The two sisters had expected to be zapped by the cage. Surely the Grimoir had to be a great source of magic? Oh, right! Only the inside was magic resistant and wouldn't allow any to get out. They had completely forgotten about that, but lucky for them that the outside wasn't effected. They had really avoided something there.

The Book landed on the ground with a loud thud, and the sound it had made hitting the bars had probably also been alarming to a certain demon. They had to be quick now if they wanted a chance to escape.

Patricia used her powers to flip through the pages of the Grimoir which was the only way to do it anyways. Good couldn't touch it, kinda like evil couldn't touch the Book of Shadows. She was about half through the book, and so far she hadn't found something to get them out.

"Naughty, naughty Charmed Ones." Someone said, and it was unmistakably identified as belonging to the Source of All Evil.

Sure enough, there he stood in his black cloak, making them feel violated by his stare. His eyes were just black, hollow pools filled with evil, but at least they were okay. They had seen him set fire to demons who hadn't followed his biddings to the teeth just by looking at them. Flames would appear in his eyes for a second, and then the demons would burst into flames, being vanguised and sent to the demon wasteland where they would be devoured.

They had a theory that he could only do it to demons because he was their master by being the Source. That meant he had control over them and could set them on fire if he wanted to, but Patricia and Penelope were witches so he hadn't the control of them to set them on fire. That was one pro, and then there was the con that he had many other ways to kill them besides that.

Patricia quickly pulled her hand back inside the cage and was about to put an protecting arm around her little sister now that they were in the presence of the Source, but she disappeared right there into thin air. She looked at the Source as a pure reflex to see what he might have do to here, and then Penelope reappeared right next to the source.

He grabbed her arm with his skeleton like hand, and then he made the Grimoir reappear on the bookstand made of rocks. He led Penelope towards his evil Book, and Patricia couldn't imagine what he would do to her precious sister, and once again there was nothing she could do about it.

"Let go of her, you evil bastard." She yelled from her place in the case, but what did threatening words do to the Source? That would be a big, fat nothing. That didn't prevent Patricia from yelling with all the power she could muster. "Do you hear me? Let go!"

The Source ignored Patricia as he was now standing by the Grimoir with what he considered to be the weakest of the Charmed Ones. He had the evil notion in his head that he could manipulate her into anything, and he probably could, but that was only because he decided all of their fates.

"I need you to do something for me, Penelope." It wasn't as much a request as it was one of his evil demands. With the other skeleton hand that he didn't have on Penelope's arm, he started flipping through the Book. "If you do, your sisters might live. I'm yet to decide."

"Don't do it, Pen!"

**The Key**

It was in the middle of the afternoon in the substation now, and all Priscilla had done that day was flip through the Book, cast spells and try every possible way to get her sisters back. That, and wait for Peter.

He hadn't showed yet, but she wasn't worried about that. The only thing that worried her was who the key was to getting them back, what he/she was supposed to do, and ultimately getting them back, but she had been instructed not to leave Justin and Alex's home until she heard back from the Elders and Peter. She was getting pretty anxious, though.

At this point all she wanted to do was flip a coin and grab either Justin or Alex, and then storm the Underworld with them for the sole purpose of getting her sisters back. It had gotten to a point now that she almost didn't care what it took. She just wanted them back.

Justin had tried to keep himself busy and not get in Priscilla's way, but at the same time staying close enough if she decided that she needed his help with something. She would eventually have to if he was infact the key.

He glanced her way, watching her flip another page in the book. There didn't appear to be anything helpful on that page so she flipped to another. Why couldn't she just let him help? It might go a little faster then? But no, she was little miss hostile! Why did it even bother him?

With a sigh she flipped another page, and then Justin decided it was about time to help no matter what she said. She couldn't do this alone, why else would there be a key?

He walked over to her and stood right before her. She met his gaze briefly, and then she turned back to the book, flipping another page. On that page there was a summoning spell for an upper level demon, but if it wasn't the Source then she just didn't care!

"Are you sure you don't want any help?" Justin asked, for the umpteenth time offering his assistance. She didn't reply at first, merely flipped another page, so he urged her. "Priscilla?"

"No, Justin. I don't want your help." She said through gritted teeth. She didn't know why she was like that with him. The Book trusted him, and it wasn't that she didn't. It was still this unexplainable need to push him away. She saw the impact of her words, and then she decided to add a few words in a nicer way. "Not right now, though."

Justin shrugged it off as he turned around and walked away. He had only gotten a few feet away when he heard Priscilla's voice in an alarming tone he'd never heard before. "Justin!?"

He turned around quickly and immediately saw what Priscilla had seen. The pointer on Ouija board had started to move, and Priscilla wasn't touching it!

**The Key**

_And that wraps up the 3rd chapter . I hope you enjoyed it because I really enjoyed writing it . I've been so wrapped up in this chapter that I didn't even sleep . I started the chapter 30 minutes after midnight, and now it's 7:40 A.M. where I live . I'm extremely tired now, but it was totally worth it . So now I'm gonna go take a shower and then try to take a nap, and when I wake up I'll read this through and then post it . I really hope it was to your liking, and if so then feel free to review . I'd appreciate your feedback even if you didn't ;) . I'll begin the next chapter soon . My New Year's resolution is to dedicate my weekends entirely to writing, and so far, so good ;) . I have other stories though, but I'll try to split my time evenly between them . Anyway, thanks for reading and please tell me what you think of everything . So yeah, review :) ._

**Laters,  
AK-tutti :)**

_(Oh, and the ring on Priscilla's finger will be significant in some of the later chapters . I can't tell anything other than it's magical . The description of Penelope's appearance, and she (unlike her sister) hadn't started to show signs of having being captivated for many (other than tiredness and hunger) will also be significant to the story later on . Can you guess why ? You'll find out soon ;b)_


	4. Chapter 4

_Hey there . I should totally be working on one of my PLL fics, but when it comes to that fandom I have a slight writer's block so I've been getting nowhere with that . I seem to have lot of ideas and inspiration when it comes to this fic, though, so I've decided to strike while the iron is hot and try to piece together this 4th chapter ;) ._

**Disclaimer;** I still don't own WoWP or Charmed, but I do own a few original characters .  


**The Key**

**Chapter 4.**

Under ordinary circumstances Priscilla would probably have been more alert to the possibility of trap, but she knew what was a stake and carelessly jumped in with both feet, unaware of the dangers of it all.

_The Source is torturing us. Help now._

That was the message. Priscilla was the sister with the least common sense, but under different circumstances she'd have had enough of it to put two and two together. She couldn't just stand by when the possibility of the message being true was there.

Justin had walked up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulder to show his support, hoping that it would also comfort her a little bit. Despite the fact that Priscilla had only been hostile with him so far, he did care about her in some weird way because he could tell how much she cared about her sisters.

She hadn't said anything hurtful or hostile to him, and they had been standing there for awhile now. It was like Priscilla had been paralyzed by the message from Ouija board, like she had forgotten all about Justin's presence and just stood there in utter, complete shock.

"Are you..." Justin attempted to find some words to ease the situation a little, but he never got to finish his thought as Priscilla finally started to have a more noticable reaction to what had just happened.

"Peter!" She shrieked as loud as she could, the desperation clear in her voice. The power of her voice caused Justin to react by letting go of her shoulders and covering his ears with his hands, and then she yelled again; "PETER!"

She turned around so she was face to face with Justin, and he had never seen horror like that in her eyes. He could tell she was done yelling so he let his hands fall to his sides. It worried him, though, that she just continued to stand there withholding their eye contact, the horror still so very clear in her eyes.

Justin reached out one of his hands and grabbed one of Priscilla's in his, simply holding it to show that he was there for her, and hopefully it comforted her a little although it didn't seem like it. They stood there for awhile, and he didn't let go of her hand, and then finally he could slowly see the painful look in her eyes disappear slightly.

She smiled at him. It was a small, barely noticable one, but yet so full of appreciation. It was almost like a sensation. She had never smiled at him or done anything nice to him before, but maybe she was starting to warm up to him. Either way, Justin opted not to smile back as he felt it would be inappropriate for him to do so in that particular situation, instead he squeezed her hand reassuringly.

They were having a nice moment, but then blue and white orbs formed behind Priscilla, and Peter appeared which caused Priscilla to let go of Justin's hand and turn around.

She saw the look in Peter's eyes. He was confused. He didn't know why she'd called him down there when they'd had a clear agenda of what needed to be done. Interrupting Peter, while he tried to figure out what was what, wasn't one of them.

He looked at his girlfriend expectantly, and then she finally just burst out crying and ran into his arms. He wrapped them around his girlfriend, not understanding why she needed comfort, but giving it to her nonetheless.

Justin was surprised by what he was seeing to say the least. He had seen Priscilla be a lot of things, but he had never seen her be that vulnerable, and he'd certainly never seen her cry before. It was a whole new experience.

Peter and Priscilla stood there in each other's arms for awhile until Priscilla had finally cried out, and then she moved away from his embrace so she was standing exactly as far away from him as she was from Justin.

"What's going on, Priss?" Peter spoke, breaking the silence that had been there for awhile. His voice was stern, but his eyes were caring. Justin could tell from afar that Peter really loved Priscilla.

"I got a message from Pen." She said as she pointed in the direction of the table at which she had been seated not long ago, and Peter walked over the table and found the piece of paper that Priscilla had written the message on. "Via the Ouija board."

Peter studied the piece of paper closely, putting bits and pieces together in his mind to figure out a way how he could guide Priscilla the best, and what it all in fact meant.

"And how do you know the message comes from Penelope and not Patricia?" He questioned after he'd studied the message more than ten times, and then he looked up and met Priscilla's eyes.

Priscilla's brown eyes shifted away from Peter's eye contact, and she briefly met Justin's eyes with hers. She wasn't sure if she should reveal why she knew the message was from Penelope in front of him. She should trust him. The book did, but she'd had people far closer to her than Justin burn her ass.

He had honest eyes, she couldn't deny that, and why shouldn't she trust him? The book did, and he was the best bet as to who was the key. All he had to do was help get her sisters back, and then she'd probably never see him again. Hopefully that wouldn't take long, at least not long enough to learn something about her that he could use against her. He did seem good and eager to help.

With a sigh she looked back at Peter and regained eye contact. "Because Penelope is the one with the psychic abilities. It would be easier for her to make a connection and send the message."

"But what if it's a trap?" Peter wanted to know, and it wasn't as much a question as it was him wanting Priscilla to come to a conclusion on her own.

Justin was watching their interaction. They were very professional, despite there being feelings involved. He couldn't imagine ever being like that with Juliet, but they were able to put their feelings aside and do it so easily. Peter was trying to guide Priscilla in a subtle way, he could tell, but she seemed sceptic to his words.

"Why would it be a trap?" Priscilla asked, instead of anwering Peter's question. She didn't just look sceptic. She sounded it, too.

Admittedly, Priscilla almost never thought things through or had a game plan before going in, and hadn't it been for her sisters she would probably have gotten killed already. She needed Patricia's calm nature to help her slow down and think it over once or twice to come up with a good stragedy, and she needed Penelope's cautious and clever nature to actually come up with the good stragedy after she'd reminded them of the dangers of it all if it wasn't properly thought through, just like Penelope needed Patricia to remind her how valuable she was (that she could do it). Priscilla hadn't been much help on that part, but hopefully that would change once she got them back. She had been mean and probably reminded Penelope of how needed she wasn't, instead of how needed she was.

Despite all of that, Priscilla really believed that she had figured everything out. Justin was the key, and this was an actual message from Penelope. End of story.

"Think about it." Peter walked over to Priscilla and handed her the piece of paper with the message so she could look at it properly, and then she'd hopefully start to understand things as he started to explain them. "We know for a fact that he has them in a magic resistant cage, otherwise all of your attempts to call on them with magic would have succeeded. Let's say they got out, don't you think they'd be in the hurry to get out of there and not waste time sending you a message? And if they did in fact get out and wanted to send you a message to let you know what was going on, don't you think Penelope would have been smart enough to make it shorter so they wouldn't get caught by the Source?"

"I guess..." Priscilla spoke with insecurity because she had once again been caught in not contemplating things over hard enough. None of those things had even crossed her mind.

"You've always underestimated Penelope, Priss, and now is not the time to do that." Peter said while he made sure he had eye contact with Priscilla. He had stopped guiding her at this point, and now he was instructing her instead. "What I need you to do is trust that Penelope and Patricia are safe, and this is all the Source's attempt to try and lure you out in to the open, but you can't let him do that! Do you understand?"

He had learned long ago to use a tough tone of voice when he wanted to get through to Priscilla, and that was what he was doing now. She kinda felt like a little kid when he did that, but on some level she knew it was necessary. He was her Whitelighter, and in the end he always seemed to know best, though she didn't listen half the time and followed her own beat.

Her eyes flickered. She wanted to object. She wanted to do it her way and ignore his words, but when he was like that she always decided to humor him. It wasn't lying, technically, because she hadn't even decided what to do yet.

She locked her eyes with his again, and then she let out a sigh of defeat. "Fine."

"And what does that mean?" He asked her, his eyebrows raised in a way that let her know that he knew what she was playing at and was trying to get her to co-operate. It was weird how well he knew her, considering Priscilla's nature.

She sighed again. "It means I stay right here, behind the crystals' safety, until you get all the information you need from the Elders and come back here with a definite game plan."

"And can I trust you to do that?" His expression remained suspicious until Priscilla finally nodded, caving in. He kissed her, and then he disappeared into blue and white orbs in the middle of it.

Priscilla groaned out with annoyance as she turned around to face Justin. "Why does he always do that?" She exclaimed in frustration, completely flustering Justin.

"I... I don't know." He quickly defended himself, although he knew he didn't need to, but Priscilla could seriously be scary sometimes.

"I mean, seriously. Don't kiss me if you're going to orb out!" She continued her rant of complaining while turned around to 'clean up' after herself, but she stopped in her track as soon as she had spun around. With an alerted tone in her voice, she said; "Vampire!"

"Excuse me, what?" Justin was confused to say the least, but that's what Priscilla did to him. Confused him as well as intrigued him.

"Your vampire girlfriend is standing outside the door, waiting for you." Priscilla said. She went over to the table in the middle and picked up the Book of Shadows in a quick motion to protect it.

"How do you know that?" Justin had to ask. He knew she hated when he asked questions, but he was still confused. She had covered over all the windows so how could she possible know that? "You've draped over all the windows."

Priscilla didn't answer right away. She clinched on tighter to the Book as she managed to place her index fingers on top of each, one facing up and one down, not even an inch apart. A small ball of light formed between her fingers, and the rest of the magical objects on the table disappeared, and she was left with just the Book in her arms.

She spun around to face Justin again. She looked at him without any sort of resentment or disgust which relieved him a bit, but just slightly. He couldn't read her expression, and that worried him a little. Priscilla had proven to be very unpredictable.

Justin could tell that she was trying to read him, just as well as he was trying to read her. He knew he was trustworthy, now she needed to know it. After awhile it seemed like that dawned on her, and she decided to get a little more personal with him.

"I know magic isn't all black and white. Witches have turned into evil, Whitelighters have fallen from grace, and Elders have betrayed all that is good." She paused to inhale a deep breath to prepare herself. She wasn't good at things like that, but she was trying. "I know good isn't always good, and evil isn't always evil, and all vampires are probably not evil. What I know about magic comes from the Book and from the Elders through Peter. That's how I get my information, and what I know from the Book and from experience is that vampires are evil." She paused again, and she could see Justin's strong urge to object and defend his girlfriend clearly in his eyes, but that would soon disappear when she dropped the next part of her speech on him. It was a bombshell. "I was bitten once."

Justin was stunned to say the least. He didn't know what to say, except; "So you're a vampire, too?"

"If I was I wouldn't be able to touch the Book." Priscilla explained. She couldn't help smiling at the fact that she was finally able to pass her magical knowledge on to someone. It was new to her. She shook her head at herself and got back on track. "But I used to be. We were new to our powers, and the Vampire Queen of some vampire hive had heard that a new generation of Charmed witches had come to their powers, and she thought that if she bit one of us she'd be able to take over the Underworld. So she sent one of her 'children', and he bit me." She paused, mostly for dramatic effect, but also because this story wasn't easy to tell. "It only took me two hours to turn, and I was brought to the Vampire Queen and her hive. I know 'hive' is probably not the right word, but it was kinda like that if you think about it. Anyways, the Vampire Queen wanted to initiate me. She wanted me to bite someone so I would become a full vampire, preferably one of my sisters."

"I'm..."

"I'm not finished." Priscilla cut Justin off mid-sentence. She knew what he was gonna say anyway. He was a somewhat predictable, but very nice guy. "I've been a vampire, that's my point. I remember the evil feeling, and I remember how determined I actually was to bite one of my sisters, but they saved me. They found the vampire cave before I even got the chance to find them. I fought along side the vampires, but they managed to fight them all and get to the Vampire Queen. They stuck a wooden cross through her heart, and she burst into flames and was vanguished. All of her 'children' burst into flames as well."

"But how?"

"You mean, how didn't I?" She said, translating Justin's question. He nodded, intrigued by her story. "I never bit anyone. You have to bite someone to become a full vampire. My sisters knew that the only way to turn me back was to kill the Queen and hope that I hadn't bitten anyone. When a Vampire Queen of a hive is killed, all of her 'children' die too... Unless they haven't bitten anyone yet. So when she died, I became me again." She paused as she glanced at the entrance to the sandwich shop behind which she knew Juliet was standing, waiting. "My point is that ever since that day, I get this weird feeling inside when I'm near a vampire. It's kinda hard to explain, but it's like this gloom feeling, and right now I can tell that a vampire is standing on the other side of that door. Unless you have a bunch of vampire friends, it can only be your girlfriend."

Priscilla walked over to door and ripped down the fabrics she had used to cover it, and then she proceeded to do the same with the windows. She was done performing magic for now so there was nothing to hide, and soon as she had taken it all down Justin could see she had been right. There on the other side of the door stood Juliet.

"Do not cross the crystals." Priscilla instructed Justin as she turned her back to the windows, still a firm grip around the large Book of Shadows. "The Book may trust you, but I have no idea what happens if you cross the crystals and try to go back inside, so just don't."

She brushed past Justin and hesitated a little before she walked up the stairs, and as soon as she was out of sight Justin rushed to the door, practically ripping it open so he could finally talk to Juliet for the first time in days.

"Hi Justin." Juliet smiled at Justin. It was a small one with closed mouth, but her fangs still showed, going over her lower lip. It was clear that she was happy to see him. "I've missed you. I haven't seen in what feels like forever, and trust me, I know what that feels like."

Justin should be touched by Juliet's words, but he was left feeling rather iffy after what Priscilla had just shared with him. It was fresh on his mind, and he was only half listening to his girlfriend, but he had to make it seem like he was right there with her and nowhere else.

"I've missed you, too." Was all he managed to say, and he could hear how half-hearted it sounded as soon as those words had left his lips. He tried with a smile as he continued. "Really, I have. I've just been really busy."

"With the witch..." Juliet sounded upset with him somehow. There definitely was a hint of blame in her voice and a glint in her eyes, like she was about to cry. Like she believed that Justin had picked a stranger over her, but it wasn't like that. As far as Justin remembered, she had said so herself.

"Priscilla, yeah..." Justin merely said instead of adressing the vibe he was getting from Juliet. It did upset him, sorta, that she was feeling indifferent somehow, but oddly not enough for him to attempt to make her feel better.

It was strange because it had always been Justin and Juliet against all odds, against everyone and everything around them not wanting them together, but they had stayed strong together and gotten through all the obsticles, and there he was slightly not caring.

It shouldn't matter to him what Priscilla had said about vampires, about how she was bitten, turned and eventually saved. It shouldn't matter that the evidence of that story pointed to vampires being evil. What should matter was that the time that he had known Juliet, she had been the most caring person in the world, and that didn't add up to evil. Still, it did matter. He felt himself filling up with doubts about everything he knew to be true.

"Look, can I just come in so we can talk about it and..." Juliet almost begged him to come in. It was evident in both her voice and eyes, and she was about to walk over the threshold and enter the sandwich shop, but Justin placed his hand on her chest and pushed her away.

She looked at him with a hurt look in her eyes, but he had to do it. She was about to cross the crystals, and Justin had to stop her as he didn't know what the crystals would do to if she crossed. Despite his sudden doubts about everything, Justin loved his vampire girlfriend deeply, and he didn't want to see her zapped by crystals or whatever would have happened. He did it to save her.

"I'm sorry, but we've protected this place with crystals, and I don't know what will happen if you try to enter." Justin explained, but it seemed to do more harm than good as the hurt expression on Juliet's face worsened.

"She's getting to you, isn't she?" Juliet's voice broke as she spoke those words, and she let the tears she had seemed to be holding back fall.

Justin wanted to cross the crystals and comfort her, but he couldn't. All he could do was stand behind the crystals and try with words. "What, no? Look, Juliet, I know you don't have an evil bone in your body, but right now it's not about what I think. I don't know what the crystals might do to you if you enter. They might not care about who you are, but what you are."

"Then why don't you come out here?" It was more of demand than a suggestion, a desperate one at that. Juliet loved Justin, but right now she couldn't tell where she had him, and it scared her a little. "Please?"

"I can't." Justin said as he watched his words break Juliet even more. She backed a few steps away, but continued to stare at him with those hurt eyes of hers. "I don't know what the crystals might do to me either if I go outside and try to go back in. I can't risk it."

"I knew it. She has gotten to you." The expression on Juliet's face changed slightly. She looked more betrayed now than she did hurt, and when she continued to stare at Justin like that it broke his heart. "Justin, this hurts me so much. I love you, and I need to know if you still love me." It was an act of desperation, but she had to do it, and when she saw Justin nod his head she saw a glimmer of hope. "Prove it. Cross the crystals. Come out here and be with me."

"I..."

"Fine!" Juliet said, anger streaming through her voice. She turned her back to Justin and got ready to leave, but hesitated for awhile just to see if Justin would change his mind. He didn't, and she began to run away.

"Wait, Juliet!" He yelled out after her and attempted to run after her, but caught himself and stopped before he ran past the crystals. He was standing on his toes and was almost leaning out of the door, and he stood as still as he could until he had regained balance.

He eventually did, and then he closed the door to the sandwich shop and locked it, feeling defeated after that encounter with Juliet. That wasn't how it was meant to turn out. He couldn't believe how hurt Juliet had looked, and that he was the reason for that.

He wanted to blame Priscilla for that story about vampires and everything else about magic she had told him, but at the same time he knew she had no control over his actions. She hadn't forced him to be that way with his girlfriend. All she had done was make him think about everything.

It had never been an issue to him that Juliet was a vampire, and as far as he knew it still wasn't, but somehow he was still having some doubts. He didn't know precisely what they were about. He had thought they were about Juliet and the whole vampire story, but if he had been doubting whether Juliet was good or evil then he wouldn't have opened the door. He just didn't know what it was.

It did bother him, though, how the whole conversation he'd just had with Juliet had played out. He loved her, and it upset him that he was the reason she was now hurt, and he hated the fact that he couldn't run after her because of the stupid crystals in every opening of the house.

He wanted to kick the one right next to him and throw everything off balance, but the good guy in him prohibited it. Instead he turned around and ran upstairs to ponder the previous events over.

**The Key**

Alex had slept all day, and when she finally woke up it was 2:30 in the middle of the night. She was still tired, probably because she'd slept so much, but she didn't feel as sad anymore. She wasn't over wanting her magic back, but at least she wasn't upset about the failed attempt to get it back anymore.

She sat up straight in her bed and turned on the nightlight. She let her eyes wander the room, and they eventually found her old wand lying on the floor of her room. She was gonna leave it there for now until she had the courage to pick it up again.

It was so calm and quiet at night, and sometimes Alex would sit up at night and just enjoy it because once the sun awoke, so did the chaos. In the old days she had often been the cause of said chaos, but these days she enjoyed the quietness once in awhile.

She was still the troublemaker she'd always been deep down, but those moments were further and further apart now, and she was sure everyone appreciated that, especially her father. She didn't scare as many customers away anymore, not even when both her parents were away and unable to supervise, like now.

Being without her magic had allowed her to grow as a person, and now she felt ready to have her magic back. She felt like this time she had grown so much that she wouldn't misuse the magic.

Maybe she hadn't done enough to prove herself worthy to have her magic back, but hopefully someone out there would see it soon. All she could do now was continue the great progress, and then it would happen sooner or later.

Alex heard a bump in the hallway and was ripped out of her thoughts. She tried to peek into the hall from the seat on her bed, but she couldn't see anyone. She heard another bump.

"Who's there?" She called out into the hallway, her eyes portraying a small ounce of fear. She usually wasn't scared of anything, but ever since they had been introduced to this new great, big world of magic... well...

There was no answer except for another bump and the sound of glass breaking, and then there was silence. It wasn't content silence of being all by yourself, but a silence of something else being out there.

"Hello?" Alex tried again. Her eyes had grown big with worry, and she could feel fear rushing through her body. It was there for a short second, and then Priscilla stuck head into Alex's room. "Oh, it's just you. You nearly scared the crap out of me!"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Priscilla said as she stepped into Alex's room, her arms full of tiny glass vials. She walked over to the bed and sat down, and then she let the vials drop out of her arms onto the mattress. She might have over done it a little bit. "I thought you were asleep. I didn't wake you, did I?"

Alex shook her head. "Of course not."After that subject had been brushed off there was a long silence. It lasted until curiosity finally got the better of Alex, having watched the vials on her bed for a few minutes. "So what's in those vials?"

Alex had studied those vials and quickly noticed that they all contained some sort of liquid, but almost all them were diffent from each other. There was one that looked just like water, a light pink one, a blue one, a green one and so on. She hadn't counted them all, but there was so many.

"The most powerful potions in the Book." Priscilla explained while picking up one of the tiny vials. Alex watched her hand move and saw the one Priscilla had picked up contained a dark liquid. "I'm preparing for our battle with the Source. It's coming up sooner than you think."

Priscilla was acting suspicious, at least Alex thought so. A lot must have happened while she had been asleep. Priscilla was acting weird, making potions and speaking cryptically.

Alex watched as Priscilla played with the small vial between her fingers for a few seconds, and then she asked the next question on her mind. "What are they for?"

"This one..." Priscilla said as she stopped playing with the vial in her hand and held it up in front of her face so Alex could get a better view, and then she let the vial drop out of her hand and crash onto the floor. The vial broke, and the potion spread onto the floor as a form of smoke rose from it. The smoke got up through Alex's nose and knocked her unconscious. "... wouldn't have worked on the Source anyway."

Priscilla got up from Alex's bed and began searching the former wizard's room until she had found the most convenient bag in there. She quickly found one that was very efficient. Easy to get the potion into, easy to get them out of.

She went back to the bed and almost threw the potions into the bag. She was in a hurry after all. When she had ensured every single potion was in there, she placed the bag on the floor and turned her focus to the very unconscious Alex lying in the bed.

"I'm so sorry." She said quietly, although she knew Alex probably wouldn't be able to hear it. She removed the covers from Alex's bed, and then she helped the girl she had knocked out into a comfortable lying position on the bed, and then pulled the covers over Alex so it looked like the former wizard was just sleeping. "You'll probably have a headache in the morning. Some Billing's Root... Sorry, some ginger should help."

As soon as she had tucked Alex in, she grabbed the bag and hurried out of the room and down the hallway towards Justin's room. When she reached it she didn't bother knocking and just barged it, slamming the door behind her and woke up Justin in the process.

"Oh good, you're up." She said, tossing the potion bag onto Justin's bed. He sat up in his bed and looked at Priscilla with a very confused expression in his eyes. "Get dressed!"

"Wha... Why do I need to get dressed?" Justin wanted to know, still drowsy from being ripped so suddenly out of his sleep and still very confused.

Priscilla smirked at him, sitting there in his Jim Bob Sherwood PJs. "Well, if you prefer that as your battle outfit then be my guest."

Justin didn't reply to that remark, instead he got up from his bed and walked over to his dresser to find something to wear. He found a pair of jeans and one of his many t-shirts.

He stripped out of his pajamas, and Priscilla automatically turned around. Justin in his undies was one thing she didn't wish to see.

"What's really going on, Priscilla?" Justin asked as he put on his jeans and zipped them up. "Why do I need to put on a 'battle outfit'?"

"Peter came." She lied, which was much easier to do with her back towards Justin. Somehow you just couldn't lie to him face to face. "Turns out you're the key after all. I made a bunch of potions to help us, and we need to go now as soon as you're dressed."

"What about Alex?" Justin continued to question Priscilla while he put on his t-shirt. He was fully dressed now. "You can turn around now."

Priscilla did as she was told and faced Justin again. "She is still sleeping, and I decided to let her keep sleeping. I don't wanna put her life in danger by letting her come along. She doesn't have any powers, and the Source is as dangerous as it gets."

Justin found the shoes he had kicked of before he had gotten into bed next to his dresser and put them on. He turned around to face Priscilla again and stood there eyeing her. Something seemed off, but he couldn't put his finger on it so he decided to 'trust' her.

"But you don't mind putting me in danger?" Justin asked, trying to get his questions answered before he joined this risky mission. He wanted to know just how dangerous it was.

"I don't have a choice." Priscilla hissed instead of yelling. It was stupid if she thought about it because Alex was knocked out from a sleeping potion and wouldn't wake up if she yelled. Why did she even wanna yell? His questions were legit. She continued in a calmer manner; "I'm sorry, but it will more dangerous if you don't go. The Charmed Ones are the only ones with the power to ever vanguish the Source, and if we don't go now he'll have smooth sailing forever."

Justin still had a lot of questions. "But..."

"Justin, demons can literally live for thousands of years, and the Source even longer because, like I said, only me and my sisters can vanguish him." Priscilla cut him off. She knew he had a lot of questions, and that he wanted them all answered because he was that kind of person, but right now wasn't the time. "The only other way is if all the demons in the Underworld uproar against the Source, but do you really think that will happen if he's the reason that the Charmed Ones are no more? No."

He took in her words, and he got her point. He understood what was at risk now, and he felt like he didn't have much of a choice when she put it like that. He just needed to know the plan so he didn't go down there unprepared.

"What's the plan?" He finally said, agreeing with her. He watched a smile form on Priscilla's lips, and in the second you could be fooled into believing that she wasn't as complicated as she really was.

"You're wizard, and in the old days they belonged in the Underworld until their trickster nature was exposed, and they were able to touch the Grimoir as well as the rest of the demons. They weren't allowed, but that's besides the point. My hope is that you'll be able to as well." She explained, and then she walked over to the bed and grabbed the bag of potions. She was standing right in front of Justin now as she explained her plan further; "You're the decoy. You're gonna grab the Grimoir, thus unevening the playingfield to our advantage. While the Source or whomever try to protect the Grimoir, I'll free my sisters. You're probably wondering how you're supposed to protect yourself against some as powerful as the Source, and that why I made these for you." She handed him the bag with the potions in it, and he peaked inside, discovering just how many there were. "They are the most powerful ones in the Book of Shadows, and I suggest you throw them first and ask questions later."

Justin, who was still studying all the potions one by one, looked up. "What do they do?"

Priscilla smiled in way Justin hoped he would never see her smile again. She didn't answer right away, instead she took off her 'earthquake ring' and placed it on Justin's nightstand. She looked Justin right in eyes, and then she mercilessly said; "Hopefully they'll inflict a lot of pain on the Source, and if we're lucky; injure him greatly. Either it will be to our benefit."

"That seems ruthless." Justin understood the plan, and he wanted to help, but that kind of talk made him feel uncomfortable. Priscilla was talking about inflicting someone pain so casually. "There has to be..."

Priscilla cut him off in the middle of a sentence again. It seemed to have become a habit of hers. "The Source is ruthless, and if we wanna stand a fighting chance we have to be too." She looked Justin straight in the eyes, searching for a sign to see if there was still doubt in him. She couldn't tell. He mostly seemed scared. "We need to do this, Justin. Now grab my arm."

She extended out her arm for him to take. She was gonna use her powers where she did the thing with her fingers and project them down to the Underworld. She had only ever projected herself different places. She had never had any passengers with her before, but this was crunch time.

Justin looked at her extended arm, still being hesitant. He had no idea that this was what he had signed up for. Priscilla's world of magic was entirely different from his. His world of magic almost seemed like fun and games compared to hers. The Charmed Ones had to eliminate all kinds of evil and save the world on a daily/weekly basis. His life had to seem like a playground to Priscilla. He wasn't sure he was ready to be part of her magical world, especially not the intensity and danger that came with it. However, he had to become ready right now. It appeared he had no choice if there had to be a future for good magic.

"What about your ring, are you just gonna leave it behind?" He knew he was stalling, and he could tell by the look Priscilla sent him that she was beginning to get really annoyed with him. They needed to go, he knew, but he was still scared. "If it's magical, aren't you going to need it?"

"It's not that kind of magic, Justin. It controls my magic until I know how to control it myself, but good magic isn't as powerful as it normally is in the Underworld so I'm taking it off to be as powerful as possible." She explained, raising a lot of question in Justin that he had to withhold at this pressing time. "Now grab my arm, Justin!"

He reluctantly did as he was told and reached, grabbing Priscilla's arm. She held out her hands, stretching out her index finger on each hand. She placed them on top of each other, one facing up and one down, not even an inch apart. A small ball of light formed between her fingers, and with that they disappeared from Justin's room.

They soon reappeared, this time in the Underworld. It was creepier than Justin had imagined, but at the same time he wasn't surprised. It was all one big, scary looking cave under ground, only being lit by stone pillars with fire on them, but still very dark and creepy.

Priscilla adjusted to being down there faster than he did, and she had quickly located where they were. "There's the Grimoir." She said and pointed towards what seemed like a big pile of rocks with a book on top to Justin. "Get it, I'll find my sisters."

"Don't you think it's an awfully big coincidence that we arrive in the Underworld exactly where we need to be?" Justin had to ask this because something seemed off about this whole predicament, almost like it was a trap, and he was beginning to have this strange feeling that Peter never contacted Priscilla, and that she had lied to him.

"Are you questioning my magic?" Priscilla said in a very low voice so no unwanted evil would hear them. Justin shook his head, scared and out of his element. "Good, now get the book. Remember, throw first and ask later."

She was refering to the bag of potions that Justin still had on him. He nodded at her instructions and ran over to the Grimoir. She turned around to go look for her sisters which turned out to be easier than she thought. There, in the same room as the Book of Shadows' counterpart, were her sisters trapped in a cage like predicted.

It didn't occur to her to think of any of this as a bad omen, instead she thought how dumb the Source was to have his precious book and her sisters in the same 'room'. She rushed over to the back of the cage as far away from the opening to this particular cave as possible so she wouldn't be immediately spotted by the Source if he were to enter.

She wrapped her hands around the bars, trying to get her sisters attention. They were so worn out by whatever the Source had put them through that they hadn't noticed their own sister being there to rescue them.

Priscilla tried to make quiet noises to alert them to her presence which she eventually succeeded at. The middle Charmed sister looked up from her knees, her blue eyes meeting her younger sister's brown ones. There were no emotion whatsoever in her eyes, no sign that she was happy to get rescued.

"What are you doing here, Priscilla?" Penelope spoke with a voice that her little sister couldn't recognise. It was that broken. She gave Patricia who was sitting next to her a little shove so that she would look up. When she did, Penelope continued speaking; "Priscilla is here."

Patricia, whom Priscilla had a very special relationship with and could talk to for hours, only had two words to say; "Oh no!"

"What 'oh no'? I'm here to rescue you." Priscilla said, hoping that an announcement like that would cause her sisters to show some sort of emotion, but no such luck.

Patricia shook her head at her little sister. "This is a trap, Priss, and you're walking right into it!"

Priscilla had a long history of being reckless when it came to magic and rushing into danger without thinking about it twice, but this had to be the stupidest thing she had ever done. The Source had set up the most obvious trap ever, and she was jumping right into it.

What was even more dumb was the fact that she wasn't on a look out. She wasn't looking over her shoulder, and she definitely wasn't looking out for Justin which she should be. She was only focussed on her sisters, and that was under any other circumstances sweet, but at this pressing time it was very, very dangerous.

"Who cares what this is? I'm getting you out of here." Priscilla completely let her sister's warning fly over her head, and instead started searching her mind for a way to get them out of the cage. She was desperate so any method would do.

She didn't have time to think, and the pressure of it caused her mind to go blank, and therefore she became even more desperate. Desperate and upset, and upset led anger, and anger trickered a few of her powers. That's when she got the idea to channel her anger to a specific power of hers.

Her hands were still firmly wrapped around two bars of the cage, and she let the anger flow through her body down to her hands, tightening the grip around the bars. It only took a fews seconds, and the bars she had been holding were completely melted away, creating an exit for Patricia and Penelope.

"Quick, get out of there!" Priscilla whisper-yelled that order at her sisters, moving away from the whole she had created in the cage so her sisters had the room to get out.

They slowly, but surely got out of the cage. They were still weak from being held hostage by the Source, especially since time seemed to move a lot slower in the Underworld than it did on Earth.

As soon as they were out of the cage, Priscilla threw her arms around her sisters and cried into the hug. Right then and there she never wanted to let go, but their location and what was about to go down forced her to.

Meanwhile Justin was standing by the Grimoir, nervously contemplating how he was supposed to attack this dangerous task of his. He was about as scared of touching the Grimoir as he'd been to touch the Book of Shadows, maybe even more. The Grimoir was evil after all, and that had to mean that the zap would be even worse if it rejected him. If it would even zap him? Maybe he'd get vaporized instead?

It was a lot to ask of him to take the Grimoir, but if he was infact the key then he'd be the only one able to do it, and he he couldn't let down the Charmed Ones. Not now.

He stretched out his arms and reached out to grab the Grimoir, and right as he was about to touch it, it rejected him. It knocked him back, and then it flew across the floor in the opposite direction.

Justin quickly got up from the ground, but before he had collected himself completely, he stood face to face with the Source who had retrieved the Grimoir into his arms by magic.

The Source didn't attack right away. He let the Grimoir disappear from his arms to an unknown place, and his skeleton looking hands were now free, and it didn't take long for the Source to make his move.

A fireball formed in between the Source's hands, and in an attempt to show how little he thought of wizards, it wasn't one of full voltage. The Source took his aim, and Justin got out his wand, foolishly thinking it would do any good against the powers of the Source.

From behind the cage Priscilla could see the situation that had formed between the wizard boy she had started to care about and the Source of all evil, and she rushed out into the open, expanding the battlefield.

"Justin!" She shrieked, her eyes full of terror of what might happen to Justin. Instinctively she tried to freeze the Source, but because he was such a powerful evil being it only lasted for a few seconds. She turned to her drained sisters as an act of desperation. "Do something!"

Although the Source's black cloack was up, and they couldn't see his hollow eyes from that far away, they could almost see how satisfied he was. The situation had turned out exactly the way he had wanted it to.

Because the Charmed Ones were now watching, and Justin was an ally of theirs, the Source increased the voltage on his fireball. He threw it before Justin had the chance to raise his wand and cast a spell, and it came close to striking.

It came so close that Justin had prepared himself with the thought that it was his dying moment, but then he heard it;

"Fireball!"

It was yelled with as much power as that particular person could muster, and then the fireball disappeared into blue and white orbs, and in the same way it almost reappeared in Penelope's hand. Before it could fully reform she threw it back at the Source while it was still orbs, and on the way towards the Source it turned back to a fireball.

It struck the Source, but didn't do as much damage as they'd hoped. They knew a fireball would never kill him, but if they were lucky it could have maimed him. It didn't.

His pride seemed injured, though. Something in his eyes changed when 'the weakest link' in the Charmed Ones was able to hit him. He almost became more malicious than he was before if that was even possible. He became more eager to get rid of them.

The bag on Justin's shoulders started moving, almost like it felt uncomfortable being there and wanted to get off. It puzzled him, and he allowed himself to look around although it was dangerous times.

He saw that one of Priscilla's sisters, the one with the darkest hair and the green eyes, was using her powers to move his bag of potions. He was certain it was to alert him to the fact that he had them, seeing as he had forgotten all about them up until that point.

He nodded his head at her as a thank you, and she nodded her head back as a you're welcome.

In the mean time the Source had created another fireball. This time it wasn't aimed at Justin, instead the Source threw it at the sisters. Patricia quickly reacted, holding out her hand which she channelled her telekinesis through, sending the fireball right back at the Source.

It didn't hit because she hadn't been aiming for the Source like Penelope did previously. Hers had been a reflexed defence move, a succesful one at that.

Justin stuck his hand into the bag and grabbed a random potion. He was gonna throw first and ask question laters. This particular one had an orange color, and he got ready to throw it at the Source, but he wanted to wait an see if the sisters' current attack was succesful.

"You're not the only one who can play with fire!" Priscilla yelled, holding out her hand with a stretched out palm. She allowed the anger to channel through her again, and pure fire formed in her hand that she threw directly at the Source.

He deflected it somehow, sending it towards Justin who didn't have time to react. The fire hit him, and he burned into ashes. The Source had tricked Priscilla into using her powers on him that ultimately led to Justin's death. Whatever the outcome of this, Priscilla would forever have a tarnished soul from killing someone good, and that would turn out in the Source's favor in the end.

Priscilla broke down crying and wanted nothing more than to fall down and give up, but that wasn't an option. Penelope helped her stay on her feet despite the middle sister being more worn out than her little sister.

The Source took that as his cue to attack them again, and this time he wanted to take out the youngest of them. He charged another fireball and threw it at Priscilla.

Patricia saw the attack before her sisters. "Priscilla, look out!" She yelled out just in time as her sisters broke away from each other, and the youngest used her best defence magic.

A purple shield of energy formed around Priscilla, almost like a protecting forcefield. The fireball hit, and the energy shield worked the way it was supposed, but unfortunately the fireball hit Patricia right after bouncing off the protection shield.

She turned into ashes just like Justin had done moments before. The Source had won. No one could kill him now, but Penelope and Priscilla still kept fighting. They might still be able to get out of there, and maybe there was some magic out there to save the ones they had lost.

Priscilla bent down and placed her hand on the ground, preparing to use one of her powers. The most powerful one she had or at least the most dangerous. Hopefully that would have the desired effect on the Source.

"Don't do it. You don't know what you'd be making an opening to down here." Penelope's wise words stopped Priscilla before she used the power she had intented. However, she didn't get up, and her hand was still on the ground.

"Whatever it is, it's where he deserves to go." She said more careless than she had ever been before, but what did they have to lose at this point? What did she have to lose? Her powers had been the cause of Justin's and her oldest sister's death. She didn't care anymore.

Penelope shook her head. "No, get up!" She grabbed a hold of her little sister's arm, and then she dragged her up on her feet again. Despite everything they couldn't be that reckless.

They got back in defence position as the Source prepared another attack. What seemed like blue lightning came out from his hand, and he aimed it at Penelope who used her abilities to send it back at him.

He used one of his many powers of evil and made Priscilla disappear, and not even a second later she reappeared right in front of the Source, getting hit by the blue lightning. Unlike Justin and Patricia, she didn't turn into dust. She was completely vaporized with no remains left behind at all.

Penelope was paralyzed with shock and unable to defend herself from the Source's next attack. He had formed a massive fireball between his skeleton fingers, but he waited to fire it. He wanted to hurt Penelope, the witch he had greatly underestimated, further.

"Who would have thought it would be you against me at the end?" With that said he had deprived Penelope the privilege of the last words spoken to her to be from her sister. Instead they would always be from the Source of all evil, the most powerful magical being there ever was and would ever be.

He fired the last fireball at Penelope, the only one left. As it got closer Penelope became more and more prepared to die, and she tried her best to be filled with as much good as possible inches before evil struck her for the final time.

**The Key**

_That's the end of chapter 4 . I hoped you enjoyed reading it, and that it kept you on the edge of your seat . I know this may not be your favorite chapter as I was kind of on a killing spree in it, but like the theme song of WoWp says; everything is not what it seems . I've dropped hints regarding that in the previous chapter along with this one, can you guess what it is ? One hint is dropped in the beginning of this chapter in a conversation between Peter and Priscilla, and one of the hints in chapter 3 was when I was describing the states Patricia and Penelope were in . That's all I'm gonna say, but you are welcome to leave me your theories . I would love to have some feedback, good or bad, with or without theories . I'm really interested in knowing what you think about everything . Anyway, thanks for reading . I really appreciate it ;) ._

_**Laters,  
AK-tutti :)**_


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